Aardra Kachroo

Aardra Kachroo

Professional Profile

Professor

Dr. Aardra Kachroo is currently on leave from UK as she serves as Program Director of Plant Biotic Interactions at NSF.

Focus

Research

Plants exhibit incredible adaptability to their external environment via an intricate cohort of signaling mechanisms that simultaneously regulate growth and disease physiology. The long-term goals of my program are to understand these intricate signaling mechanisms. For this, we primarily use Arabidopsis and soybean as our experimental systems to study local and systemic defense responses against viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens. On-going projects are focused on: 

  • Understanding the movement of chemical signals that regulate plant systemic immunity
  • Understanding how glycerolipid metabolism interfaces with defense signaling
  • Identifying and characterizing plant targets of microbial effectors
  • Understanding the overlap in responses induced by pathogenic versus beneficial microorganisms

  

Teaching

  • PPA 500: Physiology of Plant Health & Disease
  • PPA 785: Special Problems in Plant Pathology
  • PPA 395: Independent Study in Plant Pathology
  • BIO 199: Research Experience for STEMCats

Additional Information

Education

  • Ph.D. in Microbiology, 1999, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India & The Salk Institute of Biological Studies, California
  • M.S. in Biotechnology, 1993, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India
  • B.S. in Microbiology, 1991, Ramnarian Ruia College, Mumbai, India

Employment Highlights

  • Professor, University of Kentucky, 2017 to present
  • Associate Professor, University of Kentucky, 2012-2017
  • Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky, 2006-2012
  • Ag Research Specialist, University of Kentucky, 2003-2006
  • Postdoctoral Scholar, Cornell University, 2000-2002  

Awards, Recognition, Service

  • Annual lab research-based workshops at the Youth Science Summit, Lexington KY
  • Annual lab research-based workshops at the Girl Scouts GEMS program
  • Annual research presentations to Kentucky corn and soybean growers
  • ASPB Young Women Investigator Travel Award, 2007
  • Rockefeller Foundation graduate fellowship, 1994-1996  

Professional Affiliations

  • American Society of Plant Biology
  • American Phytopathological Society
  • International Society of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
  • American Soybean Association  

Recent Research Publications

(2017 to present; see A. Kachroo Lab pages for a more complete list)

2020

  • Kachroo P*, Liu H, Kachroo A (2020) Salicylic acid: transport and long-distance immune signaling. Current Opinion in Virology 42:53-57
  • Lim GH, Liu H, Yu K, Liu R, Shine MB, Fernandez J, Burch-Smith T, Mobley JK, McLetchie N, Kachroo A, Kachroo P* (2020) The plant cuticle regulates apoplastic transport of salicylic acid during systemic acquired resistance. Science Advance 6:eaaz0478
  • DeMers LC, Redekar NR, Kachroo A, Tolin SA, Li S, Saghai Maroof MA* (2020) A transcriptional regulatory network of Rsv3-mediated extreme resistance against Soybean mosaic virus. PLoS One 15:e0231658
  • Kachroo P*, Kachroo A* (2020) Lipid-modulated trafficking in plants. Molecular Plant 13:351-353

 

2019

  • Shine MB, Gao QM, Chowda-Reddy RV, Singh AK, Kachroo P, Kachroo A* (2019) Glycerol-3- phosphate mediates rhizobia-induced systemic signaling in soybean. Nature Communications 10:5303
  • Lim GH, Zhu S, Zhang K, Hoey T, Deragon JM, Kachroo A, Kachroo P* (2019) The analogous and opposing roles of double-stranded RNA-binding proteins in bacterial resistance. Journal of Experimental Botany 70:1627-1638
  • Shine MB, Xiao X, Kachroo P, Kachroo A*(2019) Signaling mechanisms underlying systemic acquired resistance to microbial pathogens. Plant Science 279:81-86
  • Kachroo P*, Kachroo A* (2019) Plant Immunity: a bird's-eye view. Plant Science 279:1- 2
  • Wang C, Liu R, Lim GH, de Lorenzo L, Yu K, Zhang K, Hunt AG, Kachroo A, Kachroo P* (2019) Pipecolic acid confers systemic immunity by regulating free radicals. Science Advance 4:eaar4509

 

2018

  • Kachroo P*, Kachroo A* (2018) Plants Pack a Quiver Full of Arrows. Cell Host Microbe. 23:573-575
  • Lim GH, Hoey T, Zhu S, Clavel M, Yu K, Navarre D, Kachroo A, Deragon J-M, Kachroo P* (2018) COP1, a negative regulator of photomorphogenesis, positively regulates plant disease resistance via double-stranded RNA binding proteins. PLoS Pathogens 7;14(3):e1006894

 

2017

  • Kachroo A*, Vincelli P, Kachroo P (2017) Systemic signaling in plant defense. Phytopathology 107:1452-1461
  • Lim GH, Singhal R, Kachroo A, Kachroo P* (2017)  Fatty acid- and lipid-mediated signaling in plant defense. Annual Review of Phytopathology 55:505-536