She obtained her BSc in Biology at St Francis College, India, her MSc in Life Sciences at University of Hyderabad, India and her PhD in Genetics at Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, India.

Her work here was in the area of symbiotic nitrogen fixation. The first part of her project involved the role of alanine dehydrogenase in R. leguminosarum and its contribution to the efficiency of symbiotic nitrogen fixation. It has been shown by Allaway et al (2000) that aldA is the primary pathway for alanine synthesis and that alanine directly links carbon catabolism and nitrogen assimilation in the bacteroid. The gene coding for AldA was identified and an aldA mutant inoculated onto peas decreased dry weight by 20%. She studied the overexpression of AldA on pea bacteroids and its effect on plant dry weight and nitrogen content. She also started work on Mesorhizobium loti, which has two alanine dehydrogenases one in the chromosome and the other in the plasmid (pMla), and was in the process of making single and double mutants for aldA. Another part of the work involved mutating the aap J,Q,M and Bra bacterial transport systems in the bean nodulating strain 8002 which forms determinate nodules and to study the importance of these systems and their effects on nitrogen fixation.

References

E. Lodwig, S. Kumar, D. Allaway, A. Bourdès, J. Prell, U. Priefer, and P. Poole (2004) Regulation of L-Alanine Dehydrogenase in Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae and Its Role in Pea Nodules. Journal of Bacteriology 186 842-849.

Presentations

Major intrinsic protein gene for the production of transgenic drought tolerant rice. World Congress of Invitro Biology, San Fransisco (1996).