Rekha Agrawal: Plant Physiology First Author

Rekha Agrawal, first author of “MEDIATOR SUBUNIT17 is required for transcriptional optimization of root system architecture in Arabidopsis”

Current Position: PhD student, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India

Education: Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Botany, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India

Non-scientific Interests: Poetry Writing, Trekking, and Playing Badminton

Brief bio:

My research journey started when I joined Dr. Jitendra K. Thakur’s laboratory at NIPGR for perusing my Ph.D. During this wonderful PhD journey, I mainly worked on understanding the role of the Mediator complex in different aspects of plant development and their responses to abiotic stress. In this study, we have identified the role of Mediator subunit, MED17 in root development. MED17 bridges auxin and sucrose signaling to regulate root architecture patterning.  My broad research interests include phytohormone signaling, epigenetic regulation and metabolic engineering in plants.