Recognizing Plant Physiology first authors: Bharat Bhusan Majhi

Bharat Bhusan Majhi, first author of BRASSINOSTEROID-SIGNALING KINASE5 associates with immune receptors and is required for immune responses

Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher, School of Plant Sciences and Food security, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Education: Ph.D. in Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India; M.Sc. in Biotechnology, Bangalore University, Bangalore, India

Non-scientific Interests: Traveling, exercising, watching movies and spending time with my family

Brief bio: Plant research always fascinated me from my bachelor studies. As a Ph.D. student, I was fortunate to work in the laboratory of Professor K. Veluthambi, School of Plant Biotechnology, MKU, Madurai, India, where I received training in recombinant DNA technology, plant molecular biology and plant tissue culture and specifically researched to identify genes involved in anther development in rice by T-DNA tagging. Afterwards, I joined as a postdoc in Professor Guido Sessa’s lab at Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, where I studied the involvement of brassinosteroid signaling kinases (BSKs) in pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). My findings demonstrate that BSK5 plays a role in PTI by interacting with cell surface-localized PRRs. In the future, I hope to continue my research in plant science and apply the research results to improve crop plants.