Madan Kumar Bhattacharyya

Madan Kumar Bhattacharyya

Position
  • Professor
Department
  • Agronomy
Bhattacharyya Lab is engaged in studying the molecular bases of two serious soybean diseases; the sudden death syndrome (SDS) and root and stem rot that are caused by Fusarium virguliforme and Phytophthora sojae, respectively. They have shown that FvTox1, a phytotoxin produced by F. virguliforme is involved in foliar SDS development. They then showed that by expressing an anti-FvTox1 plant antibody or FvTox1-interacting synthetic peptides one can enhance SDS resistance in soybean plants. They have mapped several quantitative trait loci governing SDS resistance and de novo sequenced F. virguliforme to identify pathogenicity genes involved in SDS development. They have shown that overexpression of two soybean genes, which are suppressed by F. virguliforme infection, enhances SDS resistance in transgenic soybean lines. One of these genes enhances resistance of soybean also against soybean aphids, spider mites and soybean cyst nematode. They have cloned the complex Rps1-k locus that governs the race-specific resistance of soybean against P. sojae pathotypes or races. There are two highly similar CC-NB-LRR-type genes in the Rps1-k locus that have been conferring Phytophthora resistance in soybean since 1980s. They have mapped several Rps genes including Rps1-k, Rps4, Rps6, Rps8, Rps12 and Rps13.

Bhattacharyya lab is also involved in understanding the nonhost resistance mechanisms of Arabidopsis against F. virguliforme and P. sojae. They identified 14 Arabidopsis mutants that are susceptible to both pathogens; and have cloned five genes that govern nonhost immunity of Arabidopsis against the two soybean pathogens. It appears that nonhost resistance mechanisms are highly complex and expression of these genes in transgenic soybean plants enhances SDS resistance.

Contact Info

G303 Agronomy
716 Farm House Ln.
Ames
,
IA
50011-1051
Email
mbhattac@iastate.edu
Phone
515-294-2505
Social Media and Websites

Education

  • Ph.D., Plant Sciences, University of Western Ontario, Canada, 1987
  • M.Sc., Olericulture, Punjab Agricultural University, India, 1978
  • B.Sc., (Ag.), Assam Agricultural University, India, 1975

Interdepartmental Programs

More Information

Selected Publications:

Sahoo, D.K., Das, A., Huang, X. and Bhattacharyya, M.K.* (2021) Two tightly linked functional resistance genes provide broad-spectrum Phytophthora resistance in soybean. Scientific Reports, final revision to be submitted.

Kambakam, S., Sahu, B.B., Ngaki, M.N., Kandel, D.R., Singh, P., Sumit, R., Swaminathan, S., Rajesh, M.K., and Bhattacharyya, M.K.* (2021) Arabidopsis nonhost resistance PSS30 gene encoding a folate transporter enhances disease resistance in soybean. Plant J., final revision submitted.

Zhou, H-K., Tang, K-Q., Li, G., Liu, W-Q., Yang, S-X.*, Bhattacharyya, M.K.*, Feng, X-Z.* (2021) A robust and rapid candidate gene mapping pipeline based on M2 populations. Frontiers in Plant Science Plant Breeding, in press.

Ngaki, M.N., Sahoo, D.K., Wang, B. and Bhattacharyya, M.K.* (2021) Overexpression of a plasma membrane protein generated broad‐spectrum immunity in soybean. Plant Biotechnol. J. 19:502-506. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.13479

Geiser D. M.*, Al-Hatmi A., Aoki T., Arie T, Balmas V., Barnes I., Bergstrom G.C., Bhattacharyya M.K. et al. (2020) Phylogenomic analysis of a 55.1 kb 19-gene dataset resolves a monophyletic Fusarium that includes the Fusarium solani Species Complex. Phytopathology. 2020 Nov 17. doi: 10.1094/PHYTO-08-20-0330-LE

Madhusudhan, P., Sinha, P.*, Rajput, L.S., Bhattacharyya, M., Sharma, T., Bhuvaneshwari, V., Gaikwad, K., Krishnan, S.G., and Singh, A.K. (2019) Effect of temperature on Pi54 mediated leaf blast resistance in rice. World J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 35:148. doi:10.1007/s11274-019-2724-8.

Swaminathan, S., Das, A., Assefa, T., Knight, J.M., Ferreira Da Silva, A., Hartman, G.L., Huang, X., Cianzio, S. R., Bhattacharyya, M.K.* (2019) Genome wide association study identifies novel single nucleotide polymorphic loci and candidate genes involved in soybean sudden death syndrome resistance. PLoS One 14(2):e0212071. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212071. eCollection 2019.

Swaminathan, S., Abeysekara, N.S., Knight, J.M., Liu, M., Dong, J., Hudson, M.E., Bhattacharyya, M.K., and Cianzio, S.R.* 2018. Mapping of new quantitative trait loci for sudden death syndrome and soybean cyst nematode resistance in two soybean population. Theor. Appl. Genet. 131:1047– 1062. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-018-3057-y

Wang, B., Sumit, R., Sahu, B.B., Ngaki, M., Srivastava, S.K., Yang, Y., Swaminathan, S., and Bhattacharyya, M.K.* 2018. An Arabidopsis glycine-rich plasma membrane protein enhances disease resistance in soybean. Plant Physiology 176:865-878. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.16.01982

Heinrich, J., Qiao, X., Baumbach, J., Xie, J., Dong, L.*, Bhattacharyya, M.K.* (2017) Microfluidic device enabled quantitative time-lapse microscopic-photography for phenotyping vegetative and reproductive phases in Fusarium virguliforme, which is pathogenic to soybean. Scientific Reports 7:44365.

Sahoo, D., Abeysekara, N., Cianzio, S., and Robertson, A.E., Bhattacharyya, M.K.* (2017) A novel Phytophthora resistance gene, Rps12 mapped tightly to the Rps4/6 region in soybean. PLoS One, 12:e0169950.