Contact Information:

252 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building University Park, PA 16802
  • Phone: 814-865-1159
  • Fax: 814-863-7043
  • E-mail: sic3@psu.edu

Appointment:

  • 70% Research
  • 30% Teaching

Courses:

  • AGRO 460 (3 credits, spring) - Genetics of Transgenic Crops
  • AGRO 597G (3 credits, spring) - Plant Genomics
  • IBIOS 597B (2 credits, spring/summer) Group Research
  • PLPHY 516 (2 credits, fall) - Modern Techniques in Plant Molecular Biology

Links:

Surinder Chopra

Surinder Chopra
Associate Professor of Maize Genetics

Responsibilities and Interests:

The goal of this research is to develop a better understanding of metabolic coordination and role of secondary metabolites in plant developmental process as well as plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. We use a pigment biosynthetic pathway in maize and sorghum as our model system. Our recent research has lead to the identification of a genetic factor that is involved in the biosynthesis of a class of plant flavonoid compounds, which act as anti-fungal agents in sorghum. These antifungal metabolites are also known as phytoalexins and in sorghum these compounds belong to the 3-deoxyanthocyanidin category (http://www.btny.purdue.edu/Faculty/Nicholson/). We are now generating sorghum and maize mutants and over expression lines to understand the regulation of 3-deoxyanthocyanidins under the control of specific transcription regulators.

Current Members of the Lab:

Education:

Professional Background:

Selected Publications:

  1. Boddu, J., Jiang, C., Sangar, V., Olson, T., Peterson, T., and Chopra, S.. 2006. Comparative structural and functional characterization of sorghum and maize duplications containing orthologous Myb transcription regulators of 3-deoxyflavonoid biosynthesis. Plant Mol. Biol. 60: 185-199.
  2. Chopra, S., Hoshino, A., Boddu, J., and Iida, S. 2005. Flavonoid pigments as tools in molecular genetics. In The Science of Flavonoids. Ed. Erich Grotewold, Springer, New York.
  3. Boddu, J., Svabek, C., Ibraheem, F., Jones, A. D., and Chopra, S. 2005. Characterization of a deletion allele of sorghum yellow seed1 showing loss of 3-deoxyflavonoids. Plant Sci. 169: 542-552.
  4. Chang, R., Chopra, S., Peterson, P. 2005. Differential excision patterns of the En-transposable element at the A2 locus in maize relate to the insertion site. Mol. Genet. Genomics. 274: 189-195.
  5. Carvalho, C., Boddu, J., Zehr, U., Axtell, J., Pedersen, J., & Chopra, S. 2005. Functional characterization of excision and insertion events of Candystripe1 transposon using Y1 regulated pigmentation as a marker in sorghum. Genetica 124: 211-212.
  6. Boddu, J., Svabek, C., Sekhon, R., Gevens, A., Nicholson, R., Jones, D., Pedersen J., Gustine, D., and Chopra, S. 2004. Expression of a putative flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase in sorghum mesocotyls synthesizing 3-deoxyanthocyanidin phytoalexins, Physiol. Mol. Plant Path. 65: 101-113.
  7. Jiang, C., Gu, J., Chopra, S., Gu, X., & Peterson T. 2004. Ordered Origin of the Typical Two- and Three-Repeat Myb Genes. Gene 326: 13-22.
  8. Chopra, S., Cocciolone, S., Bushman, S., Sangar, V., McMullen, M., & Peterson, T. 2003. A maize Unstable Factor for Orange1 is a dominant epigenetic modifier of tissue specifically silent allele of pericarp color1. Genetics 163:1135-1146
  9. Chopra, S., Gevens, A., Svabek, C., Peterson, T., & Nicholson, R. 2002. Excision of the Candystripe1 transposon from a hyper-mutable Y1-cs allele shows that the sorghum Y1 gene controls the biosynthesis of both 3-deoxyanthocyanidin phytoalexins and phlobaphene pigments. Physiol. Mol. Plant Path. 60: 321-330
  10. Cocciolone, S. M., Chopra, S., Flint-Garcia, S. A., McMullen M. D., and Peterson, T. 2001. Tissue-specific patterns of a maize Myb transcription factor are epigenetically regulated. Plant J. 27: 467-478.
  11. Sidorenko, L. V., Li, X., Cocciolone, S. M., Chopra, S., Tagliani, L., Bowen, B., Daniels, M., and Peterson T. 2000. Complex structure of a maize Myb gene promoter: functional analysis in transgenic plants. Plant J. 22:471-482.
  12. Cocciolone, S.M., Sidorenko, L.V., Chopra, S., Dixon, P.M., and Peterson, T. 2000. Hierarchical patterns of transgene expression indicate involvement of developmental mechanisms in the regulation of the maize P1-rr promoter. Genetics: 156, 839-846.
  13. Zhang, P., Chopra, S., and Peterson T. 2000. A segmental gene duplication generated differentially expressed myb-homologous genes in maize. Plant Cell 12: 2311-2322.
  14. Chopra, S., Brendel, V., Zhang, J., Axtell, J. D., & Peterson, T. 1999. Molecular characterization of a mutable pigmentation phenotype and isolation of the first active transposable element from Sorghum bicolor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96: 15330-15335.
  15. Chopra, S., Athma, P., X. Li., Peterson, T. 1998. A maize Myb-homolog is encoded by a multicopy gene complex. Molecular & General Genetics 260: 372-380.
  16. Chopra, S., Athma, P., Peterson, T. 1996. Alleles of the maize P gene with distinct tissue-specificities encode Myb-homologous proteins with C-terminal replacements. Plant Cell 8: 1149-1158.