Farrukh Azeem

Government College University Faisalabad | GCUF · Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology

The two-component system (TCS) gene family is among the most important signal transduction families in plants and is involved in the regulation of various abiotic stresses, cell growth, and division. To understand the role of TCS genes in mango, a comprehensive analysis of TCS gene family was carried out in mango leading to identification of 65 MiT...

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive cancer affecting the pleural membrane. It is characterized by its rarity and lethality, presenting limited treatment avenues. Vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) is a crucial signaling protein that binds to and activates the VEGFR-2 (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2). This...

Heat stress represents a significant environmental challenge that restricts maize (Zea mays) growth and yield on a global scale. Within the plant kingdom, the AGC gene family, encoding a group of protein kinases, has emerged as crucial players in various stress responses. Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of AGC genes in Z. mays under hea...

Zinc biofortification of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a promising approach for addressing malnutrition and improving food security. Zinc is an essential micronutrient for human health, and its deficiency is a significant public health concern, particularly in developing countries. Wheat is a staple food for over 1 billion people worldwide, and b...

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is a revolutionary technology for genome editing that allows for precise and efficient modifications of DNA sequences. The system is composed of two main components, the Cas9 enzyme and a guide RNA (gRNA). The gRNA is designed to specifically target a desired DNA sequence, while the Cas9 enzyme acts as molecular scissors to c...

WRKY Transcription factors (TFs) play critical roles in plant defence mechanisms that are activated in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, information on the Glycine soja WRKYs (GsoWRKYs) is scarce. Owing to its importance in soybean breeding, here we identified putative WRKY TFs in wild soybean, and compared the results with Glycine...

The SPL gene family (for Squamosa Promoter-binding like Proteins) represents specific transcription factors that have significant roles in abiotic stress tolerance, development and the growth processes of different plants, including initiation of the leaf, branching and development of shoot and fruits. The SPL gene family has been studied in differ...

World population is increasing exponentially every day. Therefore, food security is one of the big problems for the present world. Farmers are increasing agricultural yields through physical and chemical methods that are harmful to the environment, such as the use of synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides. Abiotic variables, such as dr...

The NRAMPs (natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins) are major transporters for the absorption and transport of metals like Pb, Zn, Mn, Fe, and Cd in plants. While NRAMP gene family members have been extensively studied as metal transporters in model and other plants, little information has been reported on their role in Triticum aestivum...

By the middle of the century, the global population will have surpassed 9 billion people, increasing the demand for food, water, and space. Maintaining food security and sustainability presents several significant hurdles like nutritional deficits, postharvest losses, and inconsistent regulation. Micronutrient deficiency is one of the major concern...

Pesticides are used for controlling the development of various pests in agricultural crops worldwide. Despite their agricultural benefits, pesticides are often considered a serious threat to the environment because of their persistent nature and the anomalies they create. Hence removal of such pesticides from the environment is a topic of interest...

Arachis hypogaea (peanut) is a leading oil and protein-providing crop with a major food source in many countries. It is mostly grown in tropical regions and is largely affected by abiotic and biotic stresses. Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) is a family of transmembrane proteins that play important roles in regulating stress-signaling and...

Arachis hypogaea (peanut) is a leading oil and protein-providing crop with a major food source in many countries. It is mostly grown in tropical regions and is largely affected by abiotic and biotic stresses. Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) is a family of transmembrane proteins that play important roles in regulating stress-signaling and...

Wheat is an important food crop worldwide, providing substantial calories and nourishment. Genetic variability in wheat germplasm is crucial for the development of cultivars with desirable features. This two years study (2020–21 and 2021–22) was conducted to evaluate 13 diverse wheat genotypes factorially combined with foliar-applied zinc sulphate...

The agricultural sector is facing numerous challenges worldwide, owing to global climate change and limited resources. Crop production is limited by numerous abiotic constraints. Among them, salinity stress as a combination of osmotic and ionic stress adversely influences the physiological and biochemical processes of the plant. Nanotechnology faci...

The Two-component system (TCS) consists of Histidine kinases (HKs), Phosphotransfers (HPs), and response regulator (RR) proteins. It has an important role in signal transduction to respond to a wide variety of abiotic stresses and hence in plant development. Brassica oleracea (cabbage) is a leafy vegetable, which is used for food and medicinal purp...

Background Wheat is a staple cereal food around the globe. It provides a significant source of proteins, carbohydrates, and other micronutrients to humans. When grown on cadmium (Cd) contaminated soils, the uptake of trace elements e.g ., iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) has also been affected drastically that in turn affected the wheat grain. Methods In t...

Role of integrative omics and bioinformatics approaches in berries research and genetic improvement

The NDR1/HIN1-like (NHL) family genes are known to be involved in plants' response to pathogens. Although NHL gene family has been depicted and characterized in plant defense responses, the roles of these genes associated with the plant abiotic stress response are not fully established yet. Therefore, current study was planned to study the effects...

Plant parasitic nematodes (PPNs) develop sophisticated feeding sites in plant roots called nematode feeding sites (NFSs). The development of NFSs depends on the degradative role of particular cell wall degrading enzymes, namely, cellulases, xylanases, arabinases, and pectate lyases (Pels). The esophageal glands of PPNs secrete the Pels into the ho...

Plastics are indispensable and typically derived from non-renewable sources. The extensive production and indiscriminate use of synthetic plastics pose a serious threat to the environment and lead to problems due to their non-biodegradability. Various forms of plastics that are used in daily life should be limited and replaced by biodegradable mate...

The two-component system (TCS) genes are involved in a wide range of physiological processes in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In plants, the TCS elements help in a variety of functions, including cell proliferation, response to abiotic and biotic stresses, leaf senescence, nutritional signaling, and division of chloroplasts. Three different kinds of...

Two-component system (TCS) genes regulate a wide range of biological activities in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, including plants. TCS plays an important role in cellular responses to external stimuli, such as biotic and abiotic factors. In plants, this system supports cell division, leaf senescence, stress response, chloroplast division, and nutrien...

Mango (Mangifera indica) fruit is known for its taste, health benefits, and drought tolerance. Potassium (K⁺) is one of the most abundant ions in a plant cell. It is important for various biological functions related to plant growth, development, and flowering/fruiting. It significantly contributes to fruit yield, quality, and drought tolerance in...

Wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) is a major source of calorific intake in its various forms and is considered one of the most important staple foods. Improved wheat productivity can contribute substantially to addressing food security in the coming decades. Soil salinity is the most serious limiting factor in crop production and fertilizer use efficie...

Nanotechnology uses biological and non-biological materials to create new systems at the nanoscale level. In recent years, the use of silver nanomaterials has attracted worldwide attention thanks to their wide range of applications as catalysts in several environmental processes including the degradation of organic pollutants and medicinal biotechn...

Arsenic (As) is one of the most toxic metalloids present in soil and water resources. The presence of microorganisms in soil and aqueous media have a significant impact on the toxicity of arsenic because the microorganisms interact with it in different ways such as sorption, reduction, oxidation and methylation etc. This chapter covers the microbia...

Cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (CNGC) gene family has been found to be involved in physiological processes including signaling pathways, environmental stresses, plant growth, and development. This gene family of non-selective cation channels is known to regulate the uptake of calcium and is reported in several plant species. The pangenome-wide st...

Transcriptomics and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches are used to identify bioactive compounds. Bioactive compounds are classified as flavonoids, isoprenoids, polyketides, and alkaloids, and they are chemically diverse. The demand for bioactive compounds is rapidly increasing due to their use in disease prevention and health improvement throu...

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the deadliest reproductive tract malignancies that form on the external tissue covering of an ovary. Cassia fistula is popular for its anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic properties in conventional medications. Nevertheless, its molecular mechanisms are still unclear. The current study evaluated the pote...

Lodging is one of the major abiotic stresses, affecting the total crop yield and quality. The improved lodging resistance and its component traits potentially reduce the yield losses. The section modulus (SM), bending moment at breaking (M), pushing resistance (PR), and coefficient of lodging resistance (cLr) are the key elements to estimate the lo...

Plastic is the most important component of our society because of its beneficial aspects. Synthetic plastic is used in almost every field of life because of its low cost, stiffness, quality maintenance, strength and barrier against oxygen and moisture. But synthetic plastic is nonbiodegradable and leads to waste accumulation in the environment afte...

Introduction Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is a medicine used for the treatment of fever, pain, and inflammation during pneumococcal infection. Objectives To see how paracetamol affects the transcriptional profile of Streptococcus pneumonia across the genome. Methods In this study, microarray analysis was performed for transcriptional profiling. R...

The term genome editing refers to a molecular mechanism that allows specific and precise modifications in the genome. The use of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas9 (CRISPR-associated 9-nucliase) is a recent advancement in genome-editing techniques. CRISPR/Cas9 has enabled the alteration of deoxyribonucleic acid...

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) proteins are important antioxidant enzymes that help plants to grow, develop, and respond to a variety of abiotic stressors. SOD gene family has been identified in a number of plant species but not yet in Daucus carota. A total of 9 DcSOD genes, comprising 2 FeSODs, 2 MnSODs, and 5 Cu/ZnSODs, are identified in the complet...

Background The rice plant architecture is determined by spatially and temporally domesticated tiller angle. The deeper insight into the genetic mechanism for rice plant architecture will allow more efficient light capture by increasing the planting density, reproducibility, and the ability to survive in a stressful environment. Methods In this stu...

Stomata optimize land plants’ photosynthetic requirements and limit water vapor loss. So far, all of the molecular and electrical components identified as regulating stomatal aperture are produced and operate directly within the guard cells. However, a completely autonomous function of guard cells is inconsistent with anatomical and biophysical obs...

Potassium (K⁺) is an important macro-nutrient for plants, which comprises almost 10% of plant's dry mass. It plays a crucial role in the growth of plants as well as other important processes related to metabolism and stress tolerance. Plants have a complex and well-organized potassium distribution system (channels and transporters). Cotton is the m...

Citation: Azeem, F.; Ijaz, U.; Ali, M.A.; Hussain, S.; Zubair, M.; Manzoor, H.; Abid, M.; Zameer, R.; Kim, D.-S.; Golokhvast, K.S.; et al.

The two-component signal transduction system (TCS) acts in a variety of physiological processes in lower organisms and has emerged as a key signaling system in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, including plants. TCS genes assist plants in processes such as stress resistance, cell division, nutrition signaling, leaf senescence, and chloroplast divisi...

Plastics are usually made up of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) that serve as the environmental nuisance. The recalcitrant nature of plastics is a huge concern, whereas the increasing demand has made it difficult to handle the plastic waste that eventually leads to plastic pollution. In recent years, due to increasing demand and high pressure for i...

Potassium is the most important and abundant inorganic cation in plants and it can comprise up to 10% of a plant’s dry weight. Plants possess complex systems of transporters and channels for the transport of K+ from soil to numerous parts of plants. Cajanus cajan is cultivated in different regions of the world as an economical source of carbohydrat...

Sunflower is the fourth most important oil seed crop of the world. Drought is a major limiting factor severely influencing the production sunflower. Cuticular wax is the outermost defensive layer which protect the plants from abiotic stress. In present investigation, ten sunflower genotypes were grown in growth chambers along with their controls. A...

Biochar (BC) is known to enhance plant growth and may activate plant resistance to various soil borne pathogens. In this experiment, the rice husk (RH) BC was combined with biocontrol agents (BCAs), Bacillus subtilis and Trichoderma harzianum against Meloidogyne incognita in tomato and the efficacy of BC and BCAs in boosting overall plant biomass a...

Sunflower occupies the fourth position among oilseed crops the around the world. Eceriferum (CER) is an important gene family that plays critical role in very-long-chain fatty acids elongation and biosynthesis of epicuticular waxes under both biotic and abiotic stress conditions. The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of sunflower C...

Isoproturon is a phenylurea herbicide had been extensively applied during wheat crop production in various countries including Pakistan. Understanding the fates of this herbicide within the agricultural fields and devising the strategies for its remediation is a topic of interest for the global scientific communities. The present study evaluates th...

Pesticides are used for controlling the development of various pests in agricultural crops worldwide. Despite their agricultural benefits, pesticides are often considered a serious threat to the environment because of their persistent nature and the anomalies they create. Hence removal of such pesticides from the environment is a topic of interest...

Sunflower is an important oil-seed crop in Pakistan, it is mainly cultivated in the spring season. It is severely affected by drought stress resulting in lower yield. Cuticular wax acts as the first defense line to protect plants from drought stress condition. It seals the aerial parts of plants and reduce the water loss from leaf surfaces. Various...

Background Carpet grass [ Axonopus compressus (L.)] is an important warm-season perennial grass around the world and is known for its adaptability to varied environmental conditions. However, Carpet grass lacks enough data in public data banks, which confined our comprehension of the mechanisms of environmental adaptations, gene discovery, and deve...

WD40 domain-containing proteins constitute one of the most abundant protein families in all higher plants and play vital roles in the regulation of plant growth and developmental processes. To date, WD40 protein members have been identified in several plant species, but no report is available on the WD40 protein family in mango (Mangifera indica L....

A huge number of different microbes are resident of interior parts of the plants which are collectively known as endosphere microbiome of the plants. There are different classes of these endophytes which are primarily bacterial and fungal organisms. Some of them are endophytic to the aboveground parts of the plants, while many are endophytic to the...

Solvents are abundantly used by different industries for the manufacture of consumer products and as a starting or intermediate material for many chemical procedures and reactions. Usage of conventional solvents has detrimental effects on both human fitness and the environment. Conventional solvents cause air, water, land, and noise pollution becau...

Edible oils are known as cooking oils, which are mostly extracted from plants and animals. These serve as fat-soluble transporters. Sunflower and soybean oils are decent sources of polyunsaturated fats, whereas canola and olive oils are fine sources of monounsaturated fats. Palm seed oil is acquired from seed, whereas palm oil is extracted from the...

Rice bran is a by-product of milling industry and constitutes about 10% total weight of rough rice. It is mainly composed of germ, aleurone, pericarp, and subaleurone layer. It is an important source of sterols, dietary fibers, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins. Prevalent scientific argument on several health benefits is related to dietary fiber...

For energy, the consumption of edible oil is necessary. With increasing human population, energy demands have also increased. Oil crops are rapidly growing and being consumed to meet energy needs. Rapeseed oil is the third largest oil crop globally. China is a leading producer of rapeseed among all countries. Rapeseed oil has various industrial, en...

The demand for energy is gradually increasing worldwide with 40.5% energy consumption rate in the transportation sector. The presence of toxic compounds in nonedible oils is unhealthy for a human diet. Nonedible plants require low moisture content and less fertile soils to grow. Biodiesel produced from nonedible crops does not compete with human fo...

Potassium (K+) is one of the vital macronutrients for the plant kingdom. It constitutes almost 10% of total plant biomass. Therefore, it is evident that K+ takes part in diverse biological processes throughout plant life. A number of molecular and functional studies have demonstrated the existence of a very organized system for K+ uptake and transp...

Gene delivery is a remarkable and novel method to treat different types of diseases, including genetic disorders and cancer. The foremost hindrance that lowers the in vivo applications of this approach is the intact transportation of large negatively charged and fragile molecules to cellular nuclei. The current advancements in nanotechnology favor...

Silicon (Si) accumulation protects plants from biotic and abiotic stresses. It is transported and distributed within the plant body through a cooperative system of channel type (e.g. OsLsi1) and efflux (Lsi2s e.g. OsLsi2) Si transporters (SITs) that belong to Noduline-26 like intrinsic protein family of aquaporins and an uncharacterized anion trans...

Abstract Polyphenols based bioactive compounds from vegetables and fruits are known for impressive antioxidant activity. Ingestion of these antioxidants may promote human health against cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Mango is a popular tropical fruit with special taste, high nutritional value and health-enhancing metabolites. The aim was to in...

Textile dyes are discharged into environment as colored wastewater along with other recalcitrant compounds. Dyes are resistant towards breakdown and exist in environment for longer period due to their fused aromatic structure. The presence of azo dyes in environment causes aesthetic complications and also poses severe threats to aquatic life. Micro...

Rice is an important cereal crop that serves as staple food for more than half of the world population. Abiotic stresses resulting from changing climatic conditions are continuously threating its yield and production. Genes in APETALA-2 (AP2) family encode transcriptional regulators implicated during regulation of developmental processes and abioti...

Association of 1-aminocyclo propane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase producing bacteria with plants under abiotic stress conditions leads to stress alleviation not only by the regulation of ethylene concentration but also by the activation of numerous physiological and genetic mechanisms in plants. The objective of the current study was to evaluate th...

Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biopolyesters produced by microorganisms as intracellular granules under nutrient stress. Due to non-toxic and biodegradable behavior these polyesters are a sustainable source of wide range of biomaterials such as bioplastics. As a result of excellent polymeric properties such as melting temperatures (Tm),...

In this study, a pre-isolated dye-decolorizing bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ZM130, was tested to explore its potential for the treatment of synthetic and real textile wastewaters in aerobic and anaerobic bench-scale sequencing batch bioreactors (SBRs) as well as in constructed soil columns. The decolorizing ability of strain ZM130 against reac...

Highlights: 1. Axonopus compressus can stand severe drought stress by activating the potential defense mechanism. 2. We investigated the differential transcriptome of drought stressed and normal Axonopus compressus plants 3. New comers have been identified that involved in the drought response 4. Identified drought responsive genes which never know...

Background: Carpet grass [Axonopus compressus (L.)] is an important warm-season perennial grass around the world and is known for its adaptability to varied environmental conditions. However, Carpet grass lacks enough data in public data banks, which confined our comprehension on the mechanisms of environmental adaptations, gene discovery and devel...

Background: Carpet grass [Axonopus compressus (L.)] is an important warm-season perennial grass around the world and is known for its adaptability to varied environmental conditions. However, Carpet grass lacks enough data in public data banks, which confined our comprehension of the mechanisms of environmental adaptations, gene discovery, and deve...

Background: Carpet grass [Axonopus compressus (L.)] is an important warm-season perennial grass around the world and is known for its adaptability to varied environmental conditions. However, Carpet grass lacks enough data in public data banks, which confined our comprehension of the mechanisms of environmental adaptations, gene discovery, and deve...

L-asparaginase (E.C.3.5.1.1) is an important enzyme that has been purified and characterized for over decades to study and evaluate its anti-carcinogenic activity against different lymphoproliferative disorders such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Hodgkin's lymphoma. The ability of the enzyme to convert L-asparagine into aspartic acid and...

Despite the plethora of published reports on ameliorative effects of exogenously applied salicylic acid (SA) to plants under salt stress, a critical role of SA in redox balance, photosynthetic and electron transport in mediating salt tolerance in plants is still ignored. The present study was aimed to assess the beneficial effects of SA on photosyn...

Epicuticular wax acts as first line of defense to protect the areal parts of land plants from biotic and abiotic stresses. Genes belonging to long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase (LCAS) family are known to be involved in cuticular wax biosynthesis. However, very little is known about how LACS genes function during drought stress. As the sunflower genome...

Biotic and abiotic factors badly affect the productivity and growth of plants and found the major yield-limiting factor in agriculture. In recent years, various cis-regulatory elements have been identified that can function as molecular switches to regulate the expression of stress-related genes. They comprise of insulators, silencers, promoters an...

MYB transcription factors (TFs) make up one of the most important TF families in plants. These proteins play crucial roles in processes related to development, metabolism, and stimulus-response; however, very few studies have been reported for the characterization of MYB TFs from banana. The current study identified 305 and 251 MYB genes from Musa...

Arabidopsis contains 34 genes for glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored LTPg proteins. A motif analysis has placed these into four groups. With one exception, all are produced with a signal peptide and are most likely attached to the cell membrane via the GPI anchor. Several of the LTPg genes across the four groups are downregulated in syncyt...

l-asparaginase (E.C.3.5.1.1) is an important enzyme that has been purified and characterized for over decades to study and evaluate its anti-carcinogenic activity against different lymphoproliferative disorders such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Hodgkin's lymphoma. The ability of the enzyme to convert l-asparagine into aspartic acid and...