Prakash P. Kumar PhD, BSc, MSc

Prakash Kumar's main research focus areas come under physiological and molecular aspects of the regulation of the vegetative development of plants. His team use rice, Arabidopsis, and the mangrove tree Avicennia officinalis for their experiments.

His recent findings on plant hormone signaling (with a special focus on gibberellins and abscisic acid) and shoot development led to the discovery of a genetic pathway in the gibberellin signaling (RGL2-DOF6 protein complex inducing the expression of GATA12 gene) that affects primary seed dormancy. Funding for this work came from the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore as part of a collaborative research project aimed at improving the rice crop. His team is currently studying various gibberellin signal transduction intermediates in the regulation of seed germination and related processes. Molecular characterization of selected new mutants of rice that show changes in agronomic traits is in progress. The traits of interest include seedling vigor, salt tolerance, and seed yield.

Another major research interest in our lab is to understand the salt secretion and salt ultrafiltration mechanisms in the mangrove tree Avicennia officinalis. He is focusing on aquaporins and ion transporters from the mangrove and designing synthetic pores that can be used for biomimetic membrane preparation. He also attempts to apply the molecular mechanisms discovered to crop plants such as rice and impart salinity tolerance to these species. This work is funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Environment and Water Research Program and administered by PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency.