Avtar Handa Professor Ph.D. Area of Interest: Postharvest & Molecular Biology E-mail: CV

Teaching Responsibilities

• HORT 541, Postharvest Technology of Fruits and Vegetables

PULSe - Interdisciplinary Life Science Training Group

Postharvest and Molecular Biology

The two main focuses of research are: (i) molecular engineering of fruits to enhance fruit quality and (ii) to determine the role of pectic substances and their chemistry in plant growth and development. A combination of genetic, biochemical, physiological and molecular approaches are being used to accomplish these goals. We have cloned and characterized many genes that are differentially expressed during growth, development and ripening of tomato fruit. We have created transgenic plants over- and under-expressing these using antisense and cosuppression technologies to evaluate their role in fruit biology. Several fruit specific promoters to target experession of the introduced genes to the desired stages of fruit development without any undesirable effects on fruit ripening and development are being characterized. We have greatly improved the processing attribute of tomato fruit to enhance factory yield for the processed tomato product by impairing expression of fruit specific pectinmethylesterase and research is in progress to enhance shelf life of fruits. Other current projects include (i) molecular mechanisms regulating homology-dependent gene silencing in transgenic plants, (ii) role of lipoxygenase in fruit ripening and senescence, and (iii) mechanisms regulating post-harvest quality of fresh fruits and vegetables.

 

Selected Publications

• Chen, M.-H., J. Sheng, G. Hind, A.K. Handa, and V. Citovsky. 2000. Interaction between the tobacco mosaic virus movement protein and host cell pectin methylesterase is required for viral cell-to-cell movement. The EMBO Journal 19:913-920. 
• Kausch, KD, Handa AK (1997) Molecular cloning of a ripening specific lipoxygenase and its expression during wild-type and mutant tomato fruit development. Plant Physiol. 113 (In Press) 
• Frederick, R. D., Chiu, J., Bennetzen, J. L., and Handa, A.K. (1997) Identification of a pathogenicity locus, rpfA, in erwinia carotovora subsp. Carotovara that encodes a two-component sensor-regulator protein. Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions. 10 (In Press). 
• Handa, A. K., and Joel (1997). Role of pectin methylesterase in fruit ripening. In Fruit Ripening Molecular Biolgy. J. Giovannoni ed., Gordon and Brcach Publishing (In Press)

 

Teaching Activity

 

• Postharvest Technology of Fruits and Vegetables (HORT 541)
• Postharvest Physiology and Senescence (HORT 652)
• Transgenic Plants (HORT 694)
• Research Methods (HORT 590)