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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
Assistant 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., Svabek, C., Sekhon, R., Gevens, A., Nicholson, R., Jones, D., Pedersen J., Gustine, D., and Chopra, S. 2004 Expression of a flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase in sorghum mesocotyls synthesizing 3-deoxyanthocyanidin phytoalexins, Physiological & Molecular Plant Pathology (Accepted).
  2. Jiang, C., Gu, J., Gu, X., Chopra, S., & Peterson T. 2004. Ordered Origin of the Typical Two- and Three-Repeat Myb Genes. Gene 326: 13-22.
  3. Chopra, S., Cocciolone, S., Bushman, S., Sangar, V., McMullen, M., and Peterson, T. 2002. The maize Unstable Factor for Orange1 is a dominant epigenetic modifier of a tissue specifically silent allele of pericarp color1. Genetics 163:1135-1146.
  4. 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. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 60, 321-330.
  5. 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.
  6. Sidorenko, L. V., Li, X., Cocciolone, S. M., Chopra, S., Tagliani, L., Bowen, B., Daniels, M.,and T. Peterson. 2000. Complex structure of a maize Myb gene promoter: functional analysis in transgenic plants. Plant J. 22:471-482.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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

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