Recognizing The Plant Cell first authors: Rehna Augustine
Rehna Augustine, co-first author of Molecular Basis of the Evolution of Methylthioalkylmalate Synthase and Diversity of Methionine-Derived Glucosinolates
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Centre for Plant Bioteechnology and Molecular Biology, Kerala Agricultural University, Kerala, India
Education: Ph.D. in Plant Biotechnology, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India
Non-scientific Interests: Gardening, listening to music
Brief bio: I joined the lab of Dr. Naveen Chandra Bisht at National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India, for my Ph.D research, where my work was centered around the Brassica specific plant secondary metabolites called “Glucosinolates”. I worked on glucosinolate biosynthesis, its regulation and role in Brassica crops. There I have developed Brassica lines which are low in anti-nutritional (a beneficial trait) glucosinolates through RNAi mediated silencing of a transcription factor MYB28, isolated from Brassica juncea. During my postdoctoral research I have developed B. juncea lines which are high in anticancer glucosinolate, glucoraphanin. Later I moved to Agrigenome Labs Pvt Ltd before joining the current Position as a research scientist and successfully developed an efficient CRISPR/Cas9 based genome editing platform for rice genome editing. I always focus on how my knowledge can be translated in to a product that help the poor crop growers which eventually will benefit the entire human community.
