Staff profile

I started my Research from post-grad dissertation project on " Defence associated Peroxidase from lemon" at University of Lucknow, India.  I received my PhD degree from National Institute of Plant Genome Research, JNU, New Delhi in 2019. I worked on Role of Mitogen-activated Protein Kinases (MAPKs) in plant growth and development under the supervision of Dr. Alok Krishna Sinha. After my PhD I stayed with Dr. Sinha to work on Light signalling for 6 months before moving to UK. I joined the lab of Prof. Ari Sadanandom, Dept of Biosciences, Durham University in 2021. I worked with Dr Elain Fitches (Co-supervisor) on FRASS project in collaboration with FRASS industries for a year. Since then, I have been working with Prof. Ari on role of SUMOylation in temperature sensing and plant growth.   

• Post-translational modification, Phosphorylation, SUMOylation, ABA, Auxin, Plant biotechnology

• 2024: Best Flash Talk award in International Symposium on Plant Photobiology 2024:
• 2024: Best Poster Award on Research Away Day 2024:

Journal Article

• Sureshkumar, S., Bandaranayake, C., Lv, J., Dent, C. I., Bhagat, P. K., Mukherjee, S., Sarwade, R., Atri, C., York, H. M., Tamizhselvan, P., Shamaya, N., Folini, G., Bergey, B. G., Yadav, A. S., Kumar, S., Grummisch, O. S., Saini, P., Yadav, R. K., Arumugam, S., Rosonina, E., …Balasubramanian, S. (2024). SUMO protease FUG1, histone reader AL3 and chromodomain protein LHP1 are integral to repeat expansion-induced gene silencing in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature Plants, 10, 749-759. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01672-5
• Mukkawar, V., Roy, D., Sue-ob, K., Jones, A., Zhang, C., Kumar Bhagat, P., Kakkunnath, S. M., Heuer, S., & Sadanandom, A. (2024). SUMOylation of OsPSTOL1 is essential for regulating phosphate starvation responses in rice and Arabidopsis. Frontiers in Plant Science, 15, Article 1274610. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2024.1274610
• Singh, K., Sharma, D., Bhagat, P. K., Tayyeba, S., Noryang, S., & Sinha, A. K. (2024). Phosphorylation of AGO1a by MAP kinases is required for miRNA mediated resistance against Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae infection in rice. Plant Science, 340, Article 111967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2023.111967
• Naranjo-Arcos, M., Srivastava, M., Deligne, F., Bhagat, P. K., Mansi, M., Sadanandom, A., & Vert, G. (2023). SUMO/deSUMOylation of the BRI1 brassinosteroid receptor modulates plant growth responses to temperature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(4), Article 2217255120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2217255120
• Ojha, M., Verma, D., Chakraborty, N., Pal, A., Bhagat, P. K., Singh, A., Verma, N., Sinha, A. K., & Chattopadhyay, S. (2023). MKKK20 works as an upstream triple-kinase of MKK3-MPK6-MYC2 module in Arabidopsis seedling development. iScience, 26(2), Article 106049. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106049
• Srivastava, M., Srivastava, A. K., Roy, D., Mansi, M., Gough, C., Bhagat, P. K., Zhang, C., & Sadanandom, A. (2022). The conjugation of SUMO to the transcription factor MYC2 functions in blue light-mediated seedling development in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell, 34(8), 2892-2906. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac142
• Bhagat, P. K., Verma, D., Singh, K., Badmi, R., Sharma, D., & Sinha, A. K. (2022). Dynamic Phosphorylation of miRNA Biogenesis Factor HYL1 by MPK3 Involving Nuclear–Cytoplasmic Shuttling and Protein Stability in Arabidopsis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(7), Article 3787. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23073787