Browsing by Author "Praveen Kumar Shukla"

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Application of Nano-Biochar to Improve Soil Quality and Sustainability
(Apple Academic Press, 2025) Shreni Agrawal; Pradeep Harish Kumar; Richa Das; Amit Kumar Singh; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Pooja Verma; Vishnu D. Rajput; Indrani Bhattacharya; Sunil Kumar Mishra; Kavindra Nath Tiwari
The Green Revolution has been beneficial in promoting the growth of human civilization, but it has also degraded the soil, destroyed biodiversity, and accelerated climate change. Advanced nanomaterials, including nano-biochar, have provided prolonged solutions for a wide range of current challenges. Nano-biochar is a specialized form of biochar with a structural size on the nanometer scale featuring better morphological and physiochemical properties. Nano-BC application improves soil qualities, making it better suited for plant growth and development. By enhancing soil porosity, resistivity, and water-holding capacities—all crucial for sustaining soil activity—Nano-BC offers an ideal soil habitat for bacteria. Biomass is pyrolyzed to produce the bulk parent biochar, which is then mechanically processed using various milling methods to generate nano-biochar. Different types of nano-biochar, such as biochar nanocomposites, magnetic nano-biochar, functional nanoparticles coated nano-biochar, and colloidal biochar, have greater environmental applications than normal biochar, such as improving plant growth, removing pesticides from soil, adding fertilizer, microbial growth, and managing disease. A large surface area, high degree of crystallinity, high nutritional quality, and good chemical group concentrations are a few of the distinctive characteristics of nano-biochar. The features of biochar basically depend on biomaterials that were utilized and the pyrolysis circumstances, with its distinctiveness resting on its large specific surface area and a constant source of carbon, which predispose to superior crop responses and soil health. These chapters discuss the production, types, and various applications of nano-biochar, as well as their significant contributions to agriculture, particularly in soil development. © 2025 by Apple Academic Press, Inc.
Micropropagation of Drypetes roxburghii (Wall.) Hurusawa—a valuable medicinal plant through root culture and evaluation of its genetic fidelity and metabolomics
(Springer, 2025) Rajesh Saini; Awadhesh Kumar Mishra; Pallavi Mishra; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Jyoti Vishwakarma; Kavindra Nath Tiwari; Shailesh Kumar Tiwari; Jasmeet Singh
Drypetes roxburghii (Wall.) Hurusawa (Euphorbiaceae) is a valuable endemic medicinal plant. The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red Data Book classified it under threatened species. The seeds exhibit low viability, prolonged dormancy, and a low germination rate. In the current study, direct shoot regeneration from the root explant was achieved, which helps in the conservation of germplasm. Root explants were cultured on woody plant as well as Murashige and Skoog medium containing 6-benzylaminopurine (0.5–5.0 mg L−1), kinetin (0.5–5.0 mg L−1), meta-Topolin (0.5–5.0 mg L−1), thidiazuron (0.1–1.5 mg L−1), and N-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-N′-phenyl urea (0.1–1.0 mg L−1). The 2.0 mg L−1meta-Topolin supplemented in WP medium was found most effective for induction of maximum shoot responding frequency (100 ± 0.0), number of shoots/explant (6.47 ± 0.21), and mean shoot length (4.54 ± 0.19 cm). The direct shoot organogenesis was observed under scanning electron microphotographs. Similarly, histological observations confirmed its direct origin from pericycle tissues. The microshoots showed the best rooting on Murashige and Skoog media containing indole-3-butyric acid (3.0 mg L−1) with a maximum percent responding frequency (95 ± 2.89), numbers of roots/shoot (4.41 ± 0.06), and mean root length (6.10 ± 0.10 cm). Plants were well acclimatized and grown in the field. The genetic homogeneity among mother and micropropagated plants was established using inter-simple sequence repeat, start codon targeted markers, and DNA content (2C) analysis with the help of flow cytometry. Regenerated plants exhibited good antioxidant activity. Both plants showed similar metabolites based on Fourier transform infrared and high-resolution mass spectrometry analyses. This protocol can be used for conservation, multiplication, and genetic improvement by transforming the elite clones. © The Society for In Vitro Biology 2025.
Nano-assisted delivery tools for plant genetic engineering: a review on recent developments
(Springer, 2024) Pradeep Kumar; Vishnu D. Rajput; Amit Kumar Singh; Shreni Agrawal; Richa Das; Tatiana Minkina; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Ming Hung Wong; Ajeet Kaushik; Salim Albukhaty; Kavindra Nath Tiwari; Sunil Kumar Mishra
Conventional approaches like Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, viral transduction, biolistic particle bombardment, and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-facilitated delivery methods have been optimized for transporting specific genes to various plant cells. These conventional approaches in genetically modified crops are dependent on several factors like plant types, cell types, and genotype requirements, as well as numerous disadvantages such as time-consuming, untargeted distribution of genes, and high cost of cultivation. Therefore, it is suggested to develop novel techniques for the transportation of genes in crop plants using tailored nanoparticles (NPs) of manipulative and controlled high-performance features synthesized using green and chemical routes. It is observed that site-specific delivery of genes exhibits high efficacy in species-independent circumstances which leads to an increased level of productivity. Therefore, to achieve these outcomes, NPs can be utilized as gene nano-carriers for excellent delivery inside crops (i.e., cotton, tobacco, rice, wheat, okra, and maize) for desired genetic engineering modifications. As outcomes, this review provides an outline of the conventional techniques and current application of numerous nano-enabled gene delivery needed for crop gene manipulation, the benefits, and drawbacks associated with state-of-the-art techniques, which serve as a roadmap for the possible applicability of nanomaterials in plant genomic engineering as well as crop improvement in the future. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024.
Nano-assisted delivery tools for plant genetic engineering: a review on recent developments
(Springer, 2025) Pradeep Harish Kumar; Vishnu D. Rajput; Amit Kumar Singh; Shreni Agrawal; Richa Das; Tatiana Mikhailovna Minkina; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Ming Hung Wong; Ajeet K. Kaushik; S. Albukhaty; Kavindra Nath Tiwari; Sunil Kumar Mishra
Conventional approaches like Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, viral transduction, biolistic particle bombardment, and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-facilitated delivery methods have been optimized for transporting specific genes to various plant cells. These conventional approaches in genetically modified crops are dependent on several factors like plant types, cell types, and genotype requirements, as well as numerous disadvantages such as time-consuming, untargeted distribution of genes, and high cost of cultivation. Therefore, it is suggested to develop novel techniques for the transportation of genes in crop plants using tailored nanoparticles (NPs) of manipulative and controlled high-performance features synthesized using green and chemical routes. It is observed that site-specific delivery of genes exhibits high efficacy in species-independent circumstances which leads to an increased level of productivity. Therefore, to achieve these outcomes, NPs can be utilized as gene nano-carriers for excellent delivery inside crops (i.e., cotton, tobacco, rice, wheat, okra, and maize) for desired genetic engineering modifications. As outcomes, this review provides an outline of the conventional techniques and current application of numerous nano-enabled gene delivery needed for crop gene manipulation, the benefits, and drawbacks associated with state-of-the-art techniques, which serve as a roadmap for the possible applicability of nanomaterials in plant genomic engineering as well as crop improvement in the future. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024.
Nanoparticle, Types, and Approaches for Improving Soil Health
(Apple Academic Press, 2025) Richa Das; Pradeep Harish Kumar; Shreni Agrawal; Amit Kumar Singh; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Pooja Verma; Vishnu D. Rajput; Indrani Bhattacharya; Sunil Kumar Mishra; Kavindra Nath Tiwari
Soil is Earth’s most important natural resource for sustaining life. Soil health is a critical factor in crop development. Nevertheless, as a result of both natural and anthropogenic factors, the soil’s health to support crop development and production deteriorates with time. Factors such as excess salinity, drought, unavailability of nutrients due to volatilization or low solubility, and heavy metals impact soil health. These factors also create an imbalance of soil microflora. Irrational use of fertilizers and climatic © 2025 by Apple Academic Press, Inc.
Network pharmacology of apigeniflavan: a novel bioactive compound of Trema orientalis Linn. in the treatment of pancreatic cancer through bioinformatics approaches
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023) Richa Das; Shreni Agrawal; Pradeep Kumar; Amit Kumar Singh; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Indrani Bhattacharya; Kavindra Nath Tiwari; Sunil Kumar Mishra; Amit Kumar Tripathi
Pancreatic cancer is the seventh most prevalent cause of mortality globally. Since time immemorial, plant-derived products have been in use as therapeutic agents due to the existence of biologically active molecules called secondary metabolites. Flavonoids obtained from plants participate in cell cycle arrest, induce autophagy and apoptosis, and decrease oxidative stress in pancreatic cancer. The present study involves network pharmacology-based study of the methanolic leaf extract of Trema orientalis (MLETO) Linn. From the high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis, 21 nucleated flavonoids were screened out, of which only apigeniflavan was selected for further studies because it followed Lipinski’s rule and showed no toxicity. The pharmacokinetics and physiochemical characteristics of apigeniflavan were performed using the online web servers pkCSM, Swiss ADME, and ProTox-II. This is the first in silico study to report the efficiency of apigeniflavan in pancreatic cancer treatment. The targets of apigeniflavan were fetched from SwissTargetPrediction database. The targets of pancreatic cancer were retrieved from DisGeNET and GeneCards. The protein–protein interaction of the common genes using Cytoscape yielded the top five hub genes: KDR, VEGFA, AKT1, SRC, and ESR1. Upon molecular docking, the lowest binding energies corresponded to best docking score which indicated the highest protein–ligand affinity. Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database was employed to see the involvement of hub genes in pathways related to pancreatic cancer. The following, pancreatic cancer pathway, MAPK, VEGF, PI3K–Akt, and ErbB signaling pathways, were found to be significant. Our results indicate the involvement of the hub genes in tumor growth, invasion and proliferation in the above-mentioned pathways, and therefore necessitating their downregulation. Moreover, apigeniflavan can flourish as a promising drug for the treatment of pancreatic cancer in future. © 2023, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.
Network pharmacology-based anti-pancreatic cancer potential of kaempferol and catechin of Trema orientalis L. through computational approach
(Springer, 2023) Shreni Agrawal; Richa Das; Amit Kumar Singh; Pradeep Kumar; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Indrani Bhattacharya; Amit Kumar Tripathi; Sunil Kumar Mishra; Kavindra Nath Tiwari
In pancreatic cancer, healthy cells in the pancreas begin to malfunction and proliferate out of control. According to our conventional knowledge, many plants contain several novel bioactive compounds, having pharmaceutical applications for the treatment of disease like pancreatic cancer. The methanolic fraction of fruit extract of Trema orientalis L. (MFETO) was analysed through HRMS. In this in silico study, pharmacokinetic and physicochemical properties of the identified flavonoids from MFETO were screened out by ADMET analysis. Kaempferol and catechin followed Lipinski rules and showed no toxicity in Protox II. Targets of these compounds were taken from SwissTarget prediction and TCMSP whilst targets for pancreatic cancer were taken from GeneCards and DisGeNET databases. The protein–protein interaction (PPI) network of common genes was generated through STRING and then exported to the Cytoscape to get top 5 hub genes (AKT1, SRC, EGFR, TNF, and CASP3). The interaction between compounds and hub genes was analysed using molecular docking, and high binding affinity between them can be visualised by Biovia discovery studio visualizer. Our study shows that, five hub genes related to pancreatic cancer play an important role in tumour growth induction, invasion and migration. Kaempferol effectively check cell migration by inhibiting ERK1/2, EGFR-related SRC, and AKT pathways by scavenging ROS whilst catechin inhibited TNFα-induced activation and cell cycle arrest at G1 and G2/M phases by induction of apoptosis of malignant cells. Kaempferol and catechin containing MFETO can be used for formulation of potent drugs for pancreatic cancer treatment in future. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Photosynthetic Organisms: Their Existence In Evolutionary Prospective
(Springer Nature, 2024) Rajesh Saini; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Jyoti Vishwakarma; Awadhesh Kumar Mishra; Kavindra Nath Tiwari
Photosynthesis is a very old process on this Earth. Based on fossil discoveries and chemical evidence, cyanobacteria first appeared 2.5–2.6 billion years ago (bya). Their evolution was undoubtedly continued by a number of anaerobic, photosynthetic bacterial life forms. Carbon isotope data revealed that autotrophic carbon fixation may have begun at least a bya. It is unclear, nevertheless, what the earliest photosynthetic organisms were like. The primary elements of the photosynthetic system are the carbon fixation mechanism, electron transport complexes, antenna complexes, and reaction centers. It is most likely true that these components have not all evolved at the same point in time. Consequently, it is better to think of the photosynthetic apparatus as a mosaic made up of numerous structural components, each with its own unique evolutionary background. One early instance of a cyanobacterium’s endosymbiotic absorption by a heterotrophic organism appears to have been the source of the chloroplasts seen in yellow-green algae, glaucophytes, brown algae, cryptophytes, red algae, and other algae in the “red” line of development. The variety of species present in the algae’s “red line” is the outcome of a single secondary endo-symbiotic occurrence in which an organism resembling red algae was ingested by another eukaryote. This “red line” is further expanded by tertiary (third-level) endosymbiotic events. Photosynthetic units are found in reaction centers involving complexes for gathering light. Two of these units are necessary for oxygenic photosynthesis, which currently accounts for the majority of biological transfer of energy in the various trophic levels of the biosphere. The emergence of photosynthesis utilizing oxygen among cyanobacteria, which paved the path for the formation of complex life forms with multicellular levels of organization, had a profound influence on the biology, geology, and environment of Earth. In this review, we have discussed the early evidence of photosynthesis, the origin of reaction centers, antenna, pigments, and how oxygenic photosynthesis came into existence. The origin of the chloroplasts is a necessary event that occurred earlier and was added to the history of photosynthetic origin in this review. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.
Physiological Anomalies in Plants during Water Stress
(CRC Press, 2025) Praveen Kumar Shukla; Jyoti Vishwakarma; Pradeep Vijay Dinesh Kumar; Rajesh Saini; Kavindra Nath Tiwari
Water stress is becoming a serious ecological concern affecting all of mankind due to the disturbance of ecological equilibrium and anomalies in the global climate. Water stress is the main environmental stress caused by temperature fluctuations, changes in light intensity, and inadequate rainfall. Plants create more reactive oxygen species (ROS) in response to various water stresses. For essential processes, plants need a specific amount of ROS, and variations in their concentration affect the physiological functioning of the plant altogether. Plant physiology is negatively affected by water stress in numerous ways, most notably photosynthetic capability. Prolonged stress drastically reduces plant growth and production. Perhaps several key underlying elements of the environment determining the growth of vegetation, development, and production processes involve stress generated by water. Assessing how climate change and unpredictability may affect agricultural output requires a deep understanding of the consequences of drought. Drought stress affects several systems, including the physiological, growth, developmental, productive, and quality of agricultural systems. In this chapter, some of the most important traits associated with water stress tolerance are discussed and emphasized. © 2025 Prabhat Kumar Srivastava, Parul Parihar and Richa Upadhyay. All rights reserved.
Role of secondary metabolites in plant defense mechanisms: a molecular and biotechnological insights
(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2025) Richa Upadhyay; Rajesh Saini; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Kavindra Nath Tiwari
The plants produce secondary metabolites (SMs) as defence compounds against both abiotic and biotic stresses. These stresses instigate the secretion and release of SMs by up or down-regulating the concerned genes involved in their synthesis. The secretion of SMs varies with the plant's genetic constitution and accordingly-they are susceptible or resistant. These metabolites mostly act as deterrents or antifeedants, allelochemicals, toxins or precursors of other metabolites that defend plants from stresses. However, some pathogens use these metabolites as a signal for host recognition or nutrition rather than using them as toxins or deterrents. The SMs activate different signalling pathways e.g. terpenoids modulate the calcineurin pathway, sesquiterpenoids modulate the jasmonic acid and salicylic acid pathway, polyphenols activate the jasmonic acid and phenylpropanoid pathway, and alkaloids activate the salicylic acid pathway to protect against pathogens and herbivores. Polyphenolic compounds provide resistance to different microbes by expressing different pathogenesis-proteins and hypersensitive reaction-mediated cell death and eliminate pathogens by altering the membrane permeability (inhibiting efflux pump), cell wall integrity, suppressing enzyme activity, free radicals’ generation, inhibiting protein biosynthesis, damaging DNA and reducing the expression of virulent genes. Flavonoids help plants sustain pathogen stresses through the changes in the auxin transport process. The pathogen exposure upregulate genes of alkaloid synthesis pathways such as tyrosine decarboxylase (TyDC), S-norcoclurine synthase (NCS), codeinone reductase 2-like (COR-2), and StWRKY8 transcription factors which in turn accumulate alkaloids in large amounts. Plant exposure to pathogens leads to hypersensitivity reactions and phytoalexin accumulation. The plant's treatment of salicylic acid and jasmonic acid upregulated downstream transcription factors, increased the expression of defence proteins, triggered the synthesis of SMs, and provided resistance against multiple pathogens. Pathogens and herbivores have also coevolved to cope with defence metabolites by detoxifying the toxic metabolites, converting toxins into useful products, evolving their food choice, fast digestive system, expulsion of toxins, and down-regulation of the gene-producing secondary metabolites. This review article gives a molecular insight into the genes and regulatory proteins controlling the synthesis of SMs, which may help decipher the role of the biosynthetic pathway intermediates and thereby scoring genes providing resistance to various stresses. The article comprehensively describes the roles of different SMs in plant defence and their molecular mechanisms of action. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024.
Water Stress in Crop Plants and Its Management: A Metabolomic Insight
(CRC Press, 2025) Rajesh Saini; Awadhesh Kumar Mishra; Chandrashekhar Singh; Pradeep Vijay Dinesh Kumar; Praveen Kumar Shukla; Jyoti Vishwakarma; Kavindra Nath Tiwari
A majority of crops are damaged by climate change and under abiotic stress plants lose their quality and yield. Water stress is the one devastating abiotic stress agent which covers 2.97 lakh hectares in the form of drought and 2.5 lakh hectares as water logged area. Plants alter their metabolites under the effect of water stress to face the challenges created by water stress. The primary metabolites retain the osmolytes of the plant to balance the osmoticum under the influence of drought and the water logged phase. On the other hand secondary metabolites help in providing the plant an ability to resist drought and submergence. Since genes control every reaction involving metabolites, understanding the precise mechanism is essential to obtain the highest crop yield and best quality. The signaling pathway provides knowledge about the particular transcription factor and promoter. It also sheds light on the overexpression of that part of the operon system that can enhance the resistance against water stress in crop plants. © 2025 Prabhat Kumar Srivastava, Parul Parihar and Richa Upadhyay. All rights reserved.