Personal
- Name
- Dr Harjeet Khanna
- Position(s)
- Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities,
CTCB Centre Office - Discipline *
- Agricultural Biotechnology, Plant Biology
- Phone
- +61 7 3138 7629
- Fax
- +61 7 3138 4132
- h.khanna@qut.edu.au
- Location
- View location details (QUT staff and student access only)
- Qualifications
-
PhD (Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut), MSc(Genetics) (University of Delhi), Grad Cert Res Mgmt (Southern Cross University), BSc(Hons)Botany (University of Delhi)
- Keywords
-
Anti-Apoptosis, Banana, Biotic And Abiotic Stress, Carotenoids, Plant Biotechnology, Raman Spectroscopy, Rice, Sugarcane, Tocopherols, Wheat
Biography
Research program: Tropical Crops & Biocommodities
Dr Khanna has been involved in plant biotechnology research for 18 years, with specific interests in development of transgenics in crops like rice, wheat, soybean, sugarcane and bananas. She played an active role in planning and execution of Rockefeller Rice Biotechnology program at National Research Centre in Plant Biotechnology (New Delhi, India), leading to India’s first Bt rice field trials.
Currently she is working as a senior scientist at Centre for Tropical Crops & Biocommodities where she has taken a very active role in leadership of a major international research program, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Grand Challenges in Global Health project to develop biofortified and disease resistant bananas for Africa. This is a multi-nation project and she has been involved in project planning and execution and has taken a key role in training programs for partners. This program will result in outcomes that will potentially contribute to the health, social welfare and economic development of African countries like Uganda where the staple food crop is bananas. The first GM banana field trials for this project commenced in the first half of 2009 in Australia and the first half of 2010 in Uganda.
She has also been actively participating in the Indo-Queensland dialogue on collaborative research opportunities, conducted under the auspices of the Memorandum of Understanding between Queensland and the Indian Department of Biotechnology, with an aim to develop new research linkages between the two countries.
Research areas
- Food Biofortification
- Insect and Disease resistance
- Abiotic Stress tolerance
- Transformation Technologies
Selected research projects at QUT
- Optimising bioavailable micronutrients in banana
- Transgenic disease resistance in banana
- Abiotic Stress Tolerant Sugarcane: Drought-proofing Sugarcane with Cell-death Protection Genes
- Developing Sugarcane as a Biofactory in Queensland: Establishing an Efficient Plant Regeneration and Genetic Transformation System for Smut-resistant Cultivars
Experience
Professional Experience:
- 1992 to 2000 Agriculture Research Scientist (ICAR, India) Rockefeller project on rice biotechnology: Insect resistance (Bt) in indica rice
- 2000 to 2002 Post–doctoral fellow at University of Southern Queensland GRDC funded Wheat Biotechnology Program for frost resistance.
- 2002 to current Senior Research Scientist at Queensland University of Technology Projects:
- Agrobacterium–mediated transformation of banana (ARC)
- Fungal disease resistance in banana (ARC)
- Developing Sugarcane as a Bioreactor using INPACT Technology (CRC SIIB)
- Plant transformation: exploiting anti–apoptosis genes for high efficiency transformation (ARC)
- Development of Bananas with Optimized Bioavailable Micronutrients (Gates Foundation)
- Sugarcane bio–factory for Queensland: developing genetic transformation system for smut–resistant cultivars (IHBI Seed Grant)
- Abiotic stress tolerant sugarcane: drought proofing sugarcane with cell–death protection genes (SRDC funded program 2008–2010)
Publications
- Khanna HK, Paul JY, Harding RM, Dickman M, Dale JL, (2007) Inhibition of Agrobacterium-Induced Cell Death by Antiapoptotic Gene Expression Leads to Very High Transformation Efficiency of Banana, Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions p1048-1054
- Khanna H, Daggard GE, (2006) Targeted expression of redesigned and codon optimised synthetic gene leads to recrystallisation inhibition and reduced electrolyte leakage in spring wheat at sub-zero temperatures, Plant Cell Reports p1336-1346
- Khanna HK, Daggard GE, (2003) Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of wheat using superbinary vector for and a polyamine-supplemented regeneration medium, Plant Cell Reports p429-436
- Khanna HK, Raina SK, (2002) Elite indica transgenic rice plants expressing modified cryIA(c) endotoxin of Bacillus thuringiensis show enhanced resistance to yellow stem borer (Scirpophaga Incertulas), Transgenic Research p411-423
- Khanna HK, Daggard GE, (2001) Enhanced shoot regeneration in nine Australian wheat cultivars by spermidine and water stress treatments, Australian Journal of Plant Physiology (Renamed 2002: Functional Plant Biology: an international journal of plant function) p1243-1247
- Khanna HK, Becker DK, Kleidon J, Dale J, (2004) Centrifugation Assisted Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated Transformation (CAAT) Embryogenic Cell Suspensions of Banana (Musa spp. Cavendish AAA and Lady finger AAB), Molecular Breeding: new strategies in plant improvement p239-252
Research projects
Grants and projects (Category 1: Australian Competitive Grants only)
- Title
- Abiotic Stress Tolerant Sugarcane: Drought-proofing Sugarcane with Cell-death Protection Genes
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- STU065
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Sugarcane, Transformation, Agrobacterium, Drought, Abiotic, Stress
Supervision
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Towards the biofortification of banana fruit for enhanced micronutrient content (2011)
- Defining the role of phytoene synthase in carotenoid accumulation of high provitamin A bananas (2010)
- The manipulation of apoptosis-related genes to generate resistance to Fusarium wilt and water stress in banana (2009)
