Amita Kaundal
Plants, Soils, and Climate
Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology/Microbiology
Contact Information
Office Location: AGRS 333Phone: 435-797-0457
Email: amita.kaundal@usu.edu
Additional Information:
Educational Background
Biography
Dr. Amita Kaundal's research and teaching goals focus on understanding and educating about climate change-induced environmental stresses, their effects on plant development and its microbiome, and plant responses.
Teaching Interests
My teaching philosophy is to broaden students' potential to be a better version of themselves with each lesson and day. I teach Plant Stress Physiology and Plant-Microbe Interaction courses. I also teach the Structure Functions of Plants and give guest lectures in Science and Philosophy, and Plant Propagation courses.
Research Interests
My research group focuses on developing stress-resilient crops to mitigate the effect of climate change on crop production and feed the growing population. To achieve our goal, we have two approaches: (i) dissection of the molecular mechanisms in response to abiotic and biotic stresses and identifying molecular candidates and (ii) Exploration of the microbiome of the native plants of dry Utah and Great Salt Lake to isolate Plant Growth-Promoting Microbes and develop biofertilizers to impart drought and salinity tolerance.
Awards
Nominee Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor of the year, 2023
Office of Research, Utah State University
CAAS - Undergraduate Research Mentor of the year 2022-23, 2022
College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, USU
Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year- 2022-23, 2022
Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate
Senior Research Fellowship, CSIR, 2002
Govt. of India
Joint CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) for Junior Research Fellowship and Lectureship, 1999
Govt. of India
Institute Fellowship , 1998
National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India
Certificate of Honor in Bachelors of Science, 1995
CSK, HP Agriculture University, Palampur, India
Merit Scholarship in Matriculation , 1990
HP Board of School Education, Govt. of India
Publications | Abstracts
- Paudel, A., Sun, Y., Kaundal, A., (2023). Response of Punica granatum ‘Wonderful’ to salinity stress. HortScience 58(9): S55-56 (Abstr.)
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.
- Kaundal, A., (2023). Genomic Selection in Maize Breeding: Maize Improvement: Current Advances in Yield, Quality, and Stress Tolerance under Changing Climatic Scenarios. Springer International Publishing
- Sandhu, D., Kaundal, A., (2018). Dynamics of Salt Tolerance: Molecular Perspectives: Biotechnologies of Crop Improvement, Volume 3. Springer International Publishing
Publications | Book Chapters
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.
Publications | Journal Articles
Academic Journal
- Burlakoti, S., Devkota, A.R, Poudyal, S., Kaundal, A., (2024). Beneficial Plant–Microbe Interactions and Stress Tolerance in Maize. Applied Microbiology, 4:3, 1000-1015.
- Ganesh, J., Hewitt, K., Devkota, A.R, Wilson, T., Kaundal, A., (2024). IAA-producing plant growth promoting rhizobacteria from Ceanothus velutinus enhance cutting propagation efficiency and Arabidopsis biomass. Frontiers in Plant Science, 15
- Acharya, B.R, Gill, S.P, Kaundal, A., Sandhu, D., (2024). Strategies for combating plant salinity stress: the potential of plant growth-promoting microorganisms. Frontiers in Plant Science, 15
- Singh, V., Krause, M., Sandhu, D., Sekhon, R.S, Kaundal, A., (2023). Salinity stress tolerance prediction for biomass-related traits in maize (Zea mays L.) using genome-wide markers. Plant Genome, 16:4
- Sandhu, D., Pudussery, M.V, William, M., Kaundal, A., Ferreira, J.F, (2023). Divergent Gene Expression Responses to Salinity Stress in 16 Geographically Diverse Spinach Genotypes. ACS Agricultural Science and Technology, 3:9, 795-804.
- McCord, P., Singh, V., Kaundal, A., Roper, T.R, (2023). Genetic Diversity of New Almond Accessions from Central Asian and Cold-adapted North American Germplasm. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, 148:5, 221-228.
- Sandhu, D., Pallete, A., William, M., Ferreira, J.F, Kaundal, A., Grover, K.K, (2023). Salinity responses in 24 guar genotypes are linked to multigenic regulation explaining the complexity of tolerance mechanisms in planta. Crop Science, 63:2, 585-597.
- Ganesh, J., Singh, V., Hewitt, K., Kaundal, A., (2022). Exploration of the rhizosphere microbiome of native plant Ceanothus velutinus – an excellent resource of plant growth-promoting bacteria. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, 5049.
- Acharya, B.R, Sandhu, D., Dueñas, C., Dueñas, M., Pudussery, M., Kaundal, A., Ferreira, J.F, Suarez, D.L, Skaggs, T.H, (2022). Morphological, physiological, biochemical, and transcriptome studies reveal the importance of transporters and stress signaling pathways during salinity stress in Prunus. Scientific Reports, 12:1
- Lee, S., Vemanna, R.S, Oh, S., Rojas, C.M, Oh, Y., Kaundal, A., Kwon, T., Lee, H.K, Senthil-Kumar, M., Mysore, K.S, (2022). Functional role of formate dehydrogenase 1 (FDH1) for host and nonhost disease resistance against bacterial pathogens. PLoS ONE, 17:5 May
- Kaundal, A., Sandhu, D., Singh, V., Duenas, M., Acharya, B.R, Nelson, B., Ferreira, J., Litt, A., (2022). Transgenic Expression of Prunus persica Salt Overly Sensitive 2 (PpSOS2) in the atsos2 Mutant Imparts Salt Tolerance in Arabidopsis. ACS Agricultural Science & Technology
- Hasan, M.S, Singh, V., Islam, S., Islam, M.S, Ahsan, R., Kaundal, A., Islam, T., Ghosh, A., (2021). Genome-wide identification and expression profiling of glutathione S-transferase family under multiple abiotic and biotic stresses in Medicago truncatula L.. PloS one, 16:2, e0247170.
- Sandhu, D., Kaundal, A., Acharya, B.R, Forest, T., Pudussery, M.V, Liu, X., Ferreira JFS, , Suarez, D.L, (2020). Linking diverse salinity responses of 14 almond rootstocks with physiological, biochemical, and genetic determinants.. Scientific reports, 10:1, 21087.
- Kaundal, A., Ramu, V.S, Mysore, K.S, (2020). The ATPase Activity of Escherichia coli Expressed AAA+-ATPase Protein. , 10:15, doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3705.
- Vaidya, A.S, Helander, J., Peterson, F.C, Elzinga, D., Dejonghe, W., Kaundal, A., Park, S.Y, Xing, Z., Mega, R., Takeuchi, J., Khanderahoo, B., Bishay, S., Volkman, B.F, Todoroki, Y., Okamoto, M., Cutler, S.R, (2019). Dynamic control of plant water use using designed ABA receptor agonists.. Science (New York, N.Y.), 366:6464
- Kaundal, A., Sandhu, D., Duenas, M., Ferreira , J., (2019). Expression of the high-affinity K+ transporter 1 (PpHKT1) gene from almond rootstock 'Nemaguard' improved salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis.. PloS one, 14:3, e0214473.
- Kaundal, A., Ramu, V.S, Oh, S., Lee, S., Pant, B., Lee, H.K, Rojas, C.M, Senthil-Kumar, M., Mysore, K.S, (2017). GENERAL CONTROL NONREPRESSIBLE4 Degrades 14-3-3 and the RIN4 Complex to Regulate Stomatal Aperture with Implications on Nonhost Disease Resistance and Drought Tolerance.. The Plant cell, 29:9, 2233-2248.
- Elzinga, D., Sternburg, E., Sabbadin, D., Bartsch, M., Park, S.Y, Vaidya, A., Mosquna, A., Kaundal, A., Wendeborn, S., Lachia, M., Karginov, F.V, Cutler, S.R, (2019). Defining and Exploiting Hypersensitivity Hotspots to Facilitate Abscisic Acid Agonist Optimization.. ACS chemical biology, 14:3, 332-336.
- Sandhu, D., Pudussery, M.V, Kaundal, R., Suarez, D.L, Kaundal, A., Sekhon, R.S, (2018). Molecular characterization and expression analysis of the Na+/H+ exchanger gene family in Medicago truncatula. Functional & Integrative Genomics, 18:2, 141-153.
- Vaidya, A.S, Peterson, F.C, Yarmolinsky, D., Merilo, E., Verstraeten, I., Park, S.Y, Elzinga, D., Kaundal, A., Helander, J., Lozano-Juste, J., Otani, M., Wu, K., Jensen, D.R, Kollist, H., Volkman, B.F, Cutler, S.R, (2017). A Rationally Designed Agonist Defines Subfamily IIIA Abscisic Acid Receptors As Critical Targets for Manipulating Transpiration.. ACS chemical biology, 12:11, 2842-2848.
- Ramegowda, V., Senthil-Kumar, M., Ishiga, Y., Kaundal, A., Udayakumar, M., Mysore, K.S, (2013). Drought stress acclimation imparts tolerance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Pseudomonas syringae in Nicotiana benthamiana.. International journal of molecular sciences, 14:5, 9497-513.
- Kaundal, A., Rojas, C., Mysore, K., (2012). Glycolate Oxidase Activity Assay in Plants. BIO-PROTOCOL, 2:20
- Kaundal, A., Rojas, C., Mysore, K., (2012). Measurement of NADPH Oxidase Activity in Plants. BIO-PROTOCOL, 2:20
- Rojas, C.M, Senthil-Kumar, M., Wang, K., Ryu, C.M, Kaundal, A., Mysore, K.S, (2012). Glycolate oxidase modulates reactive oxygen species-mediated signal transduction during nonhost resistance in Nicotiana benthamiana and Arabidopsis.. The Plant cell, 24:1, 336-52.
- Srinivasan, V.B, Virk, R.K, Kaundal, A., Chakraborty, R., Datta, B., Ramamurthy, T., Mukhopadhyay, A.K, Ghosh, A., (2006). Mechanism of drug resistance in clonally related clinical isolates of Vibrio fluvialis isolated in Kolkata, India.. Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 50:7, 2428-32.
- Kaundal, A., Chowdhury, S.R, Thungapathra, M., Ramamurthy, T., Nair, G.B, Ghosh, A., (2003). Class I integrons and SXT elements in El Tor strains isolated before and after 1992 Vibrio cholerae O139 outbreak, Calcutta, India.. Emerging infectious diseases, 9:4, 500-2.
- Thungapathra, M., Kaundal, A., Sinha, K.K, Chaudhuri, S.R, Garg, P., Ramamurthy, T., Nair, G.B, Ghosh, A., (2002). Occurrence of antibiotic resistance gene cassettes aac(6')-Ib, dfrA5, dfrA12, and ereA2 in class I integrons in non-O1, non-O139 Vibrio cholerae strains in India.. Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 46:9, 2948-55.
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.
Publications | Other
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.