LCB

Research Objectives

To identify the role of epigenetics in maintenance of cellular homeostatic pathways and stress:

In eukaryotes, DNA is organized in the form of chromatin which consists of repeating units called nucleosomes. The structure and function of chromatin is regulated by the specific enzymes that modify DNA and histone proteins to maintain cellular homeostatic mechanisms under a variety of pathophysiological conditions. Several classes of enzymes compete for binding to the chromatin. The coordination among chromatin modifying enzymes is critical for survival under various stress conditions. The imbalance in the activity of chromatin modifying enzymes leads to the development of disease pathologies. We trying to understand the significance of chromatin associated epigenetic changes in response to intra and extracellular factors. Following are our key research questions: 

1. To dissect the role of yeast Cell Wall Integrity (CWI) pathway in flocculation of yeast. 

2. To investigate the mechanism and significance of proteolytic clipping of histone proteins during development, aging, immunity and sepsis. 

3. To study role of core histones, chromatin remodelling complexes in regulation of cellular homeostatic pathways, genome and cell wall integrity and metal homeostasis.

4. To understand the mechanism of action of potential anti-cancer molecules.

About Dr. Tomar

Dr. Raghuvir Singh Tomar

About

Area of research interest: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Understanding the epigenetic regulation of stress response pathways in eukaryotes 
Administrative experience: Coordinator of Department of Biological Sciences, IISER Bhopal: 2010 – 2012; Head Department of Biological sciences, IISER Bhopal: January, 2015 – March, 2018; Dean, Student affairs, IISER Bhopal: August, 2018 onward

Faculty Appointment

• Professor (February, 2018- Present), Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, India.
• Associate Professor (November, 2013- January, 2018), Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, India.
• Assistant Professor (January, 2009- November, 2013), Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, India.
  

Education

• Post-doc. January 2007- December 2008, The Ohio State University, Columbus (USA).
• Post-doc. October 2003 - December 2006, The Penn State University, University Park (USA).
• Post-doc. May 2002 - September 2003, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas (USA).
  
• Ph.D.: Ph.D. in Zoology, 2001 from Center for Advanced Study in Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, INDIA  
  
•  M.Sc.: in Biochemistry from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, INDIA, 1993   
  
• B.Sc.: in Biology from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, INDIA, 1991
  

Courses taught: 
Bio 101: Biomolecules and origin of life 
Bio 202: Basic genetics
Bio 104: General Biology laboratory II 
Bio 102: Diversity in the living world 
Bio 301: Cell Biology 
Bio 303: Biochemistry I 
Bio 302: Biochemistry II 
Bio 304: Molecular Biology 
Bio 307: Biology laboratory I 
Bio 308: Biology laboratory II 
Bio 501S/601S: Epigenetics

 Check detailed CV here

Alumni Members

PhD Students

• Dr. Papita Mandal, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow at King Abdullah University Science Technology, Saudi Arabia. 
• Dr. Gajendra Kumar Azad, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow at National University of Singapore. Assistant Professor in the department of Zoology, Central University Patna.
• Dr. Vikash Singh, Ph.D., Post-doctoral fellow at Penn State University, Hershey Medical centre, USA.
• Dr. Sakshi Chauhan, Ph.D., Post-doctoral fellow at NIH, USA
• Dr. Upendarrao Golla, Ph.D., Post-doctoral fellow at Penn State University, Hershey Medical centre, USA.
• Dr. Pushpendra Kumar Sahu, Post-doctoral fellow at University of California San Francisco 
•  Dr. Santhosh Kumar Sariki, Post-doctoral fellow at University of Michigan 
• Dr. Pilendra Kumar Thakre, Post-doctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, USA 
•  Dr. Prabhat Singh, Post-Doctoral fellow, scientific officer, IISER Berhampur. 
• Dr. Swati Swagatika
• Dr. Rakesh Kumar Sahu, Post Doctoral Fellow at NIH, USA
• Dr. Sakshi Singh, Post Doctoral Fellow at NIH, USA

Post Doctoral Fellows

• Dr. Manoj Kumawat, SERB N-PDF 
• Dr. Piyoosh Babele, SERB N-PDF 
  
  

Master Students

• Naveen Verma, BS-MS 2013, graduate student in laboratory of Professor Bradley Cairns) at Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, USA 
• Goutham Bandi, BS-MS 2014
• Jagriti Banerjee, BS-MS 2015 
• Rishith Ravindran, BS-MS 2015, graduate student in laboratory of Prof. S. Murty Srinivasula at IISER TVM.
• Deepthi Joseph, BS-MS 2015, graduate student in laboratory of Dr. Aravind Penmatsa at IISc. Bangalore.
• Mubthasima PP, BS-MS 2016, graduate student at CFTRI, Mysore. 
• Jeena TJ, BS-MS 2016 21.  
• Sagar Salim, BS-MS 2017, graduate student in laboratory of Dr. Nishant K.T. at IISER TVM. 
• Athira SV, BS-MS 2017 
• Soumya Prakash Sahu, BS-MS 2017 
• Rohit Kumar, BS-MS, 2018 
• Mahajan Vibhuti Prakash, BS-MS 2018, graduate student at NCCS Pune.
• Yagna Anand Oza, BS-MS 2019, graduate student at University of California, USA
• Anaswara Sugathan, BS-MS 2020 
• Harsha P M, BS-MS 2020, Graduate student at IISc, Bangalore. 
• Debashish Naik, BS-MS 2021 
• Manali Powar, BS-MS 2021, Research Fellow at Children's National Research and Innovation Campus, Washington DC  
  

Publications

Recent Publications

• Singh S, Sahu RK, Sugathan Anaswara and Tomar RS (2021). The H2A N-terminal tail is required to alleviate copper-induced stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEMS Yeast Research, doi: 10.1093/femsyr/foab061
  
• Swagatika S. and Tomar RS (2021). ABC transporter Pdr5 is required for cantharidin resistance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. BBRC, doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.03.074. 
• Swagatika S. and Tomar RS (2021) Cantharidin downregulates PSD1 expression and inhibits autophagic flux in yeast cells. FEBS Open Bio., doi: 10.1002/2211-5463.13196.
• Thakre PK, Sahu RK, and Tomar RS (2021). Substitution of histone H3 arginine 72 to alanine leads to deregulation of isoleucine biosynthesis in budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biochem Cell Biol., doi: 10.1139/bcb-2020-0651 
• Sahu RK, Singh S and Tomar RS (2021). The ATP-dependent SWI/SNF and RSC chromatin remodelers cooperatively induce unfolded protein response genes during endoplasmic reticulum stress. BBA-Gene Regulatory Mechanisms, doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagrm.2021.194748  
  
• Singh S, Sahu RK and Tomar RS (2020). The N-terminal Tail of Histone H3 Regulates Copper Homeostasis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol. Cell. Biol., doi: 10.1128/MCB.00210-20.
•  Sahu RK, Singh S, and Tomar RS (2020). The mechanisms of action of chromatin remodelers and implications in development and disease. Biochem. Pharmacol, doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2020.114200.
  
•  Sahu R, Saha N, Das L, Sahu PK, Sariki SK and Tomar RS (2020). SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex contributes to clearance of cytoplasmic protein aggregates and maintains basal unfolded protein response in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEBS Journal, 287, 3024-3041.
  
• Thakre PK, Golla U, Biswas A, and Tomar RS (2020). Identification of histone H3 and H4 amino acid residues essential for regulation of arsenite stress signaling in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Chemical Res Toxicol, 33, 817-833.
  
• Sariki SK, Kumawat R, Singh V and Tomar RS* (2019). Flocculation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is dependent on activation of Slt2 and Rlm1 regulated by the Cell Wall Integrity pathway. Under review for publication in Molecular Microbiology, 112,1350-1369.
  
• Sahu PK, Salim S, Pp M, Chauhan S and Tomar RS* (2019). Reverse genetic analysis of yeast YPR099C/MRPL51 reveals a critical role of both overlapping ORFs in respiratory growth and MRPL51 in mitochondrial DNA maintenance. Accepted for publication in FEMS Yeast Research, 19, foz056
  
• Sahu PK and Tomar RS* (2019). The natural anticancer agent cantharidin alters GPI-anchored protein sorting by targeting Cdc1-mediated remodeling in endoplasmic reticulum. Journal Biol. Chem., 294, 3837-3852.

For more publication​s, visit: 

pubmed

and

Gallery

Teacher's Day Celebration 2019

Teacher's Day Celebration 2019

Rakesh's B'day Celebration

 Dr. Pushpendra's Farewell

Annual Biology Meet 2019 

Annual Biology Meet 2019 

Group Members

Poster Presentation session, Annual Biology Meet 2019 

Group Meeting

Dr. Tomar's Family 

Student Recognitions

• Papita Mandal got selected for prestigious ‘Keystone Symposia scholarship’ funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research to present a poster in the Keystone symposia meeting ‘Chromatin Mechanisms and Cell Physiology’ at Oberstdorf, Germany, March 23 – 28, 2014 
• Travel award to Gajendra K. Azad from Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India for presenting a poster in Wellcome Trust meeting ‘Chromatin: from nucleosomes to chromosomes' at Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK, April 30 – May 2, 2014     
• Travel award to Vikash Singh from DST to present his work in 'Chromatin and Transcription' meeting held at EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany from 23 - 26 August, 2014. 
• Travel award by DST to Upendarrao Golla for presenting two posters in 27th International conference on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology (ICYGMB), Levico Terme, Trento, Italy. Sept 06-12, 2015. 
• Sakshi Chauhan, presented a poster entitled ‘Characterization of H3 tail clipping activity of H3 protease Glutamate dehydrogenase’ in a conference ‘Gene Networks in Chromatin/Chromosome functions’, 5th Chromatin Asia international meeting held at JNCSR, Bangalore, January 15th – 18th, 2015. 
• Travel award by DST to Sakshi Chauhan to present a poster in Keystone Symposium on “Epigenetics and Human Disease: Progress from Mechanisms to Therapeutics, January 29 - February 2nd, 2017, organized at Sheraton Seattle hotel, Seattle, Washington, USA. Poster title: Clipping of histone H3 is regulated by multiple factors; structure and post-translational modifications of histone H3 and stefin B. 
• Pushpendra Kumar Sahu selected for best poster award inXL All India Cell Biology Conference & International Symposium on Functional Genomics and Epigenomics, organized by Jiwaji University, Gwalior from November 17-19, 2016. The title of the poster “Yeast Crg1 is required for mitochondrial integrity and TOR signalling by modulating redox homeostasis”. 
• Santhosh Kumar Sariki selected for best poster award in the 11th International Conference on “Biology of Yeast and Filamentous Fungi” held at the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad during November 27-29, 2019. 
  

Join Us!

Are you interested in understandstanding aspects of various epigenetic modification? We are always looking forward to interactions with motivated researchers. If you are one of them, then directly contact Dr. Tomar at [rst@iiserb.ac.in] with your CV.

Picture Courtesy: Arindam Gupta