Faculty at School of Natural Sciences
Anjil Kumar Srivastava
Assistant Professor
School of Natural Sciences
Contact Information
- Email: [email protected]
We investigate how plants respond to and interact with both biotic and abiotic environmental cues. Our research is driven by fundamental curiosity, with a focus on uncovering core principles of RNA biology and its regulatory roles in plant growth, development, and stress adaptation. In particular, we are interested in RNA modifications, especially N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A), and how these chemical marks influence RNA stability, processing, and translation during environmental responses.
We also explore how post-translational modifications of RNA-binding proteins regulate RNA metabolism. By studying how protein modifications alter RNA–protein interactions, we aim to understand how dynamic changes in RNA-binding protein activity control processes such as splicing, transport, and decay under different environmental conditions.
To address these questions, we employ unbiased, discovery-driven approaches, including forward genetic screens and global sequencing of messenger RNAs, to identify key regulators and pathways. Our experimental systems include crop plants such as rice and potato, alongside model species like Arabidopsis thaliana and various tobacco species, enabling us to integrate fundamental insights with translational relevance. One of our major research directions is to elucidate the role of m⁶A modification machinery in plant stress responses, as well as to dissect how protein modifications influence RNA–protein dynamics in shaping adaptive gene expression programs.
Ph.D. Purvanchal University, Jaunpur, India
M.Sc. Purvanchal University, Jaunpur, India
B.Sc Purvanchal University, Jaunpur, India
May 2026-Present Assistant Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR
June 2025- April 2026 Associate Staff, University of Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom
Feb 2022- May 2025 Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom
Dec 2021 – Jan 2022 Seed Pathologist- Zayndu Ltd., Loughborough, United Kingdom
March 2021- July 2021 DBT-Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship- BRIC-National Agri-Food and Biomanufacturing Institute, Mohali, Punjab, India
Jan 2014- Feb 2021 – Postdoctoral Research Associate, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Sept 2009- July 2013 – DST FastTrack Project Scientist, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, W. Bengal, India
2020 - DBT-Ramalingaswami Fellowship
2025 Metheringham CL*, Srivastava AK*, Thorpe P*, Maji A, Parker MT, Barton GJ and Simpson GG. Disruption of the mRNA m6A writer complex triggers autoimmunity in Arabidopsis. Plos Genetics (*equal contribution)
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011925
2022 Srivastava M, Srivastava AK*, Bhardwaj M, Roy D, Gough C, Bhagat P, Zhang C, Sadanandom A*. SUMO conjugation to MYC2 reveals a new facet to blue light-mediated seedling development in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell (*corresponding authors) https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac142
2021 Srivastava M, Verma V*, Srivastava AK*. The converging path of protein SUMOylation in phytohormone signalling: highlights and new frontiers. Plant Cell Reports
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02732-2) (*corresponding authors).
2021 Verma V*, Srivastava AK*, Gough C, Campanaro A, Srivastava M, Morrell R, Joyce J, Bailey M, Zhang C, Krysan PJ, Sadanandom A. SUMO enables substrate selectivity by Mitogen-activated protein kinases to regulate immunity in plants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 118 (10) e202104811 (*equal contribution)
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/10/e2021351118
2021 Campanaro A Srivastava AK, Zhang C, Lee J, Millyard L, Gatehouse AMR, Byrne E Sadanandom A. TaWRKY10 transcription factor is a novel Jasmonic Acid signalling regulator involved in immunity against Septoria tritici blotch disease in wheat. Plant Pathology (https://doi.org/10.1111/ppa.13388).
2021 Srivastava M, Sadanandom A, Srivastava AK*. Towards understanding the multifaceted role of SUMOylation in plant growth and development. Physiol Plant 171: 77-85 (*corresponding author)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ppl.13204
2020 Dong Y, Mazda M, Simura J, Horvath R, Srivastava AK, Langowski L, Eldridge T, Stacey N, Sadanandom A, Ljung K, Smith RS, Ostergaard L. HEARTBREAK controls post-translational modification of INDEHISCENT to regulate fruit morphology in Capsella. Current Biology 30: 3880-3888
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220310800)
2020 Srivastava M, Srivastava AK, Orosa B, Campanaro A, Zhang C, Sadanandom A. SUMO conjugation to BZR1 mediates the environmental regulation of Brassinosteroid signalling to modulate plant growth during salt stress. Current Biology 30: 1410-1423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.089
2019 Aliaga-Franco N, Zhang C, Presa S, Srivastava AK, Granell A, Alabadí D, Sadanandom A, Blazquez M, Minguet E. Identification of transgene-free CRISPR-edited plants of rice and tomato by monitoring DsRED fluorescence in dry seeds. Frontiers in Plant Sciences 10: 1150.
(https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01150/full).
2018 Srivastava AK, Orosa B, Singh P, Walsh C, Zhang C, Grant M, Roberts MR, Srinivasan G, Fitches E, Sadanandom A. SUMO suppresses the activity of the jasmonic acid receptor Coronatine Insensitive1. The Plant Cell 30: 2099-2115.
http://www.plantcell.org/content/30/9/2099.
2018 Orosa B *, Yates G*, Verma V*, Srivastava AK*, Srivastava M, Campanaro A, Lee J, Bennett M, Sadanandom A. SUMO conjugation to the pattern recognition receptor FLS2 triggers intracellular signalling in plant innate immunity. Nature Communications 9:5185 (*Equal contribution).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07696-8.
2018 Orosa B*, Leftley N*, Wangenheim D*, Banda J, Srivastava AK, Hill K, Truskina J, Bhosale R, Morris E, Srivastava M, Kumpers B, Goh T, Fukari H, Vermeer JEM, Vernoux T, Dinneny J, French AG, Bishopp A, Sadanandom A, Bennet MJ. Roots branch towards water by post-translational modification of transcription factor ARF7. Science 362:1407-1410.
(https://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6421/1407.long)
2018 Garrido E, Srivastava AK, Sadanandom A. Exploiting protein modification systems to boost crop productivity: SUMO proteases in focus. J Experimental Botany 69:4625-4632.
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/articlelookup/doi/10.1093/jxb/ery222.
2017 Srivastava AK, Zhang C, Caine RS, Gray J, Sadanandom A. Rice SUMO protease Overly Tolerant to Salt 1 targets the transcription factor, OsbZIP23 to promote drought tolerance in rice. The Plant J 92: 1031-1043.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10. 1111/tpj.13739.
2016 Srivastava AK, Zhang C, Yates G, Bailey M, Brown A, Sadanandom A. SUMO is a critical regulator of salt stress responses in rice. Plant Physiology 170: 2378- 2391
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/170/4/2378.
2016 Srivastava AK, Zhang C, Sadanandom A. Rice OVERLY TOLERANT TO SALT1 (OTS1) SUMO protéase is a positive. Regulator of seed germination and root development. Plant Signalling and Behaviour 11: (5) e1173301.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15592324.2016.1173301.
2016 Yates G*, Srivastava AK *, Sadanadom A. SUMO proteases: uncovering the roles of deSUMOylation in plants. J Experimental Botany 67: 2541- 2548 (*Equal contribution)
2016 Bailey M, Srivastava AK, Conti L, Nelis S, Zhang C, Florance H, Love A, Milner J, Napier R, Grant M, Sadanandom A. Stability of Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier proteases OVERLY TOLERANT TO SALT1 and -2 modulates salicylic acid signaling and SUMO1/2 conjugation in Arabidopsis thaliana. J Experimental Botany 67: 353-363
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/67/1/353/2885162.
2015 Srivastava AK, Senapati DD, Srivastava AK, Chakraborty M, Gangappa SN, Chattoapadhyay S. Short Hypocotyl in White Light1 Interacts with Elongated Hypocotyl5 (HY5) and Constitutive Photomorphogenic1 (COP1) and Promotes COP1-Mediated Degradation of HY5 during Arabidopsis Seedling Development. Plant Physiology 169: 2922-2934
http://www.plantphysiol.org/lookup/doi/10.1104/pp.15.01184.
2015 Verma V, Sivaraman J, Srivastava AK, Sadanandom A, Kumar PP. Destabilization of interaction between cytokinin signaling intermediates AHP1 and ARR4 modulates Arabidopsis development. New Phytologist 206: 726-737 https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.13297
2014 Srivastava AK*, Kumar RR, Singh AK. Cell cycle stage specific application of municipal landfill leachates to assess the genotoxicity in root meristem cells of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Environmental Science and Pollution Research 21: 13979-13986 (*corresponding author)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11356-014-3298-5.
2013 Gangappa SN, Srivastava AK, Maurya JP, Ram H, Chattopadhyay S. Z-box binding transcription Factor in Arabidopsis seedling development. Molecular Plant 6: 1758-1768
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674205214602628.
2011 Singh A, Srivastava AK Singh AK. Exogenous application of salicylic acid to alleviate the toxic effects of insecticides in Vicia faba L. Environmental Toxicology 28:666-672
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/tox.20745.
2009 Srivastava B, Rai P, Srivastava AK Dubey NK. Efficacy of Artabotrys odoratissimus oil as a plant-based antimicrobial against storage fungi and aflatoxin B1 secretion. International Journal of Food Science and Technology 44:1909-15
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2009.01981.x
2009 Srivastava AK*, Singh AK. Effects of insecticide profenophos on germination, early growth, meiotic behaviour and chlorophyll mutation of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 31: 537—544 (*corresponding author)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11738-008-0263-2.
2008 Srivastava AK, Singh P, Singh AK. Sensitivity of the mitotic cells of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) to insecticides on various stages of cell cycle. Pesticides Biochemistry and Physiology 91: 186-190
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048357508 000527.
2008 Singh P, Srivastava AK, Singh AK. Cell cycle stage-specific application of cypermethrin and carbendazim to assess the genotoxicity in somatic cells of Hordeum vulgare L. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 81 (3) 258-261
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00128-008-9469-7
2007 Singh P, Srivastava AK, Singh AK. Comparative sensitivity of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) to insecticide and fungicide on different stages of cell cycle. Pesticides Biochemistry and Physiology 89: 216-219. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ abs/pii/S0048357507000909.
2026 Invited Speaker, Workshop on Next-Gen Computation: Harnessing AI and HPC for Biomedical and Bioinformatics Breakthroughs, IIIT Allahabad.
2025 Invited Speaker, Webinar, PhytoTalk 2025, Kurukshetra University, Haryana, India
2023 Keynote Speaker, The UK Rice Research Consortium (UKRRC) Early Career Researcher (ECR) meeting
2022 Invited Speaker, Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, India
2021 Invited Speaker, Science Setu, National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, Punjab, India
2020 Invited Speaker, Garnet online webinar series, UK
2020 Invited Speaker, Research Away Day, Durham University, Durham, UK
2019 Invited Speaker, ISRFG-2019, Taipei, Taiwan
2019 Invited Speaker, School of Biosciences, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
2024- till now- Member of Editorial Board, BMC Plant Biology
2021- till now- Review Editor of Frontiers in Plant Sciences