{"id":280,"date":"2026-03-12T16:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/?page_id=280"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:46:27","slug":"ujjal-phukan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/s-mukhtar-lab\/ujjal-phukan\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Ujjal Phukan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-862f4f6b alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-1660fa2a\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"842\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/03\/ujjal_headshot-842x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"ujjal headshot\" class=\"wp-image-283\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.8222698072805139;width:293px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/03\/ujjal_headshot-842x1024.jpeg 842w, https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/03\/ujjal_headshot-247x300.jpeg 247w, https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/03\/ujjal_headshot-768x934.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/03\/ujjal_headshot-1263x1536.jpeg 1263w, https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/03\/ujjal_headshot-1684x2048.jpeg 1684w, https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2026\/03\/ujjal_headshot.jpeg 1870w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-7e13eb98\">\n<h3><strong>About Me<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">I earned my Ph.D. in Plant Biotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Following my doctoral studies, I conducted postdoctoral research at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) in Spain. After that, I joined the University of Arizona as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at Clemson University, where I continue to work in plant stress physiology and functional genomics.<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-af18a024 alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<h3><strong>Research Interests<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">My area of expertise is plant stress physiology, with a focus on understanding how plants perceive, respond, and adapt to environmental challenges at molecular, cellular, and physiological levels. My research integrates transcriptomics, gene regulation, and functional genomics approaches to investigate plant responses to abiotic stresses such as waterlogging, drought, and heat, as well as biotic stresses including pathogen attack.<\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">I am particularly interested in regulatory networks involving transcription factors, signaling pathways, and metabolic reprogramming that shape plant growth, development, and resilience under stress conditions. Currently, in Prof. Shahid Mukhtar\u2019s lab, I am applying high\u2011resolution technologies\u2014including Single-Cell\/Nucleus and Spatial\/Stereo transcriptomics\u2014to uncover how stress responses are coordinated across tissues and cell types.<\/span><\/h4>\n<h3><strong>Research Projects<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong style=\"font-size: 1.25rem\">Transcriptional regulation of soybean seed development under drought stress using single\u2011cell and spatial transcriptomics<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">This project aims to investigate how drought influences gene expression and regulatory networks during soybean embryo\u2013endosperm development. Using high\u2011throughput Single\u2011Nucleus RNA sequencing and Stereo sequencing, I seek to map transcriptional changes at cellular and spatial resolution and identify key regulatory pathways involved in drought adaptation. The findings will provide insights into how environmental stress affects seed development and may contribute to developing strategies for improving drought resilience and productivity in soybean.<\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Transcriptional regulation of sorghum biomass production under drought stress at single\u2011cell and spatial resolution<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">In this project, I am studying how drought affects gene regulation and cellular processes that control biomass production in the biofuel crop sorghum. By integrating Single\u2011Nucleus RNA sequencing and Stereo sequencing, I aim to identify the molecular pathways that enable sorghum to maintain growth and productivity under drought conditions. This research will deepen our understanding of stress tolerance mechanisms in sorghum, an important crop for food, feed, and bioenergy production.<\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>Understanding source\u2013sink dynamics in Arabidopsis<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000\">This project focuses on how plants regulate the distribution of photosynthetically derived sugars between source tissues (such as leaves) and sink tissues (such as developing organs). Using Arabidopsis as a model system, I am investigating the transcriptional networks that govern resource allocation during stress responses such as senescence and pathogen attack. Insights from this work will enhance our understanding of fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying source\u2013sink regulation in plants.<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About Me I earned my Ph.D. in Plant Biotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Following my doctoral studies, I conducted postdoctoral [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"parent":102,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-280","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"mshahid","author_link":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/author\/mshahid\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"About Me I earned my Ph.D. in Plant Biotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Following my doctoral studies, I conducted postdoctoral [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/280\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceweb.clemson.edu\/sparc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}