Biology Faculty and Staff - Chandrakanth Emani

Dr. Chandrakanth Emani

Assistant Professor of Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology

Office:  WKU-Owensboro 109E
Phone:  (270) 684-9797
Email:  chandrakanth.emani@wku.edu

Courses

•Introductory Biology – Bio 112 (I teach this course at the Owensboro Community and Technical College, where I am an Adjunct Faculty)

•Genetics – Bio 327

•Bioinformatics – Bio 312

•Molecular Genetics – Bio 495

•Plant Molecular Biology – Bio 496

Research

1. Plant Genetic Engineering: Generate proven and effective methodologies to transform model and economically important crop plants such as rice and sorghum with cell-wall hydrolysis enzymes such as the Acidothermus cellulolyticus E1 enzyme for its production in these crops, and exploit their potential in biofuel usage.

   My previous research experiences in plant transformation that led me to this research were in sorghum, rice and cotton. You can view that work in these publications:

   • Mona B. Damaj, Siva Prasad Kumpatla, Chandrakanth Emani, Avutu Sam Reddy, Keerti S. Rathore, Terry L. Thomas and T. Erik Mirkov (2010) Stem-regulated, plant defense promoter and uses thereof in tissue-specific expression in monocots. Planta 231:1439-1458.
   • Chandrakanth Emani, Juan Manuel Garcia, Emily Lopata-Finch, Maria Jose Pozo, Pedro Uribe, Dong-Jin Kim, Ganesan Sunilkumar, Douglas R. Cook, Charles M. Kenerley and Keerti S. Rathore (2003) Enhanced fungal resistance in transgenic cotton expressing an endochitinase gene from Trichoderma virens. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 1: 321-326.
   • Chandrakanth Emani, Ganesan Sunilkumar and Keerti S. Rathore (2002) Transgene silencing and reactivation in sorghum. Plant Science, 162: 181-192.

2. Plant Molecular Evolution: Identify structural and functional features of plant seed proteins with the French bean protein phaseolin as a reference by tracing their evolution in silico to identify crucial insights towards nutritional improvement of crops.

   A comprehensive review and a proposed plan for this research can be viewed in the following article:

   • Chandrakanth Emani and Timothy C. Hall (2008) Phaseolin: structure and evolution. The Open Evolution Journal, 2: 66-74.

3. Biotechnology Education among students and the general public: A lot of misinformation and half-baked knowledge disseminated among students and general public has led to an unwarranted and unfortunate backlash towards the revolutionary scientific revolution of biotechnology. Through my research and teaching activities, I hope to undo some of the damage and properly educate and inform the students and the general public on the benefits, research ethics and myths of biotechnology.

   Some of the related issues can be viewed in the following book chapters:

   • Chandrakanth Emani (2010, In press) Gossypium (In) Wealth of wild crop relatives: genetic, genomic and breeding resources, Volume 8: Wild relatives of industrial crops, Chittaranjan Kole (Ed.), Springer: NY.
   • Miloslav Juricek, Chandrakanth Emani, Sunnee Kertbundit and Timothy C. Hall (2009) Metabolic engineering of pathways and gene discovery. (In) Biotech crops: concepts, construction, contribution and concerns, Chittaranjan Kole, Charles H. Michler, Albert G. Abbott and Timothy C. Hall (Eds.), Springer: NY.
   • Chandrakanth Emani, Yiming Jiang, Berta Miro, Timothy C. Hall and Ajay Kohli (2008) Rice. (In) A compendium of transgenic crop plants, Volume 1: Cereals and forage grasses, Chittaranjan Kole and Timothy C. Hall (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell: New York.

Bio

• B.Sc. in Genetics, Zoology, Chemistry, Nizam College, India, 1989
• M.Sc. in Biochemistry, University of Pune, India 1991
• Ph.D.in Genetics/Plant Molecular Biology, Osmania University, India, 1997

Honors

• Rockefeller Foundation Visiting Scientist Research Fellowship at the Norman Borlaug Center for Southern Crop Improvement, Texas A&M University, 1997
• Hindustan Ciba-Geigy (presently Syngenta) Doctoral Research Fellowship at the Center for Plant Molecular Biology, Osmania University, India, India, 1994
• Rockefeller Foundation Junior Research Fellowship at the Center for Plant Molecular Biology, Osmania University, India, 1992
• Full Member and Membership Committee Chair, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society-Texas A&M University Chapter, 2007