Bijoy Mohanty
Assistant Research Scientist
Ph.D. (1990) University of Calcutta
Phone: 706-542-1437
Email: mohanty@uga.edu

Research Interests
Presently, my research focuses on understanding how mRNA stability affects post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in the model organism Escherichia coli.  I have been actively pursuing this work in the Kushner lab by studying the mechanism of polyadenylation of E. coli transcripts and its effect on the stability, processing and expression of such transcripts.  Despite several reports of polyadenylation by poly(A) polymerase I (PAP I) in E. coli  over last four decades, the ubiquitous presence of poly(A) tails associated with plant and animal cell mRNAs led to the belief that polyadenylation was only important in eukaryotes.  However, over the past ten years, my research, as well as others, has shown that polyadenylation plays an important role in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in E. coli.  My research interests also include understanding the role of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) on gene regulation and expression in prokaryotes.
  • Mohanty, B.K, V.F. Maples and S.R. Kushner. 2004. The Sm-like protein Hfq regulates polyadenylation dependent mRNA decay in Escherichia coli. Mol. Microbiol. 54:  905-920.
  • Mohanty, B.K. and S.R. Kushner. 2003. Genomic analysis in Escherichia coli demonstrates differential roles for polynucleotide phosphorylase and RNase II in mRNA abundance and decay. Mol. Microbiol. 50:  645-658.
  • Mohanty, B.K. and S.R. Kushner. 2002. Polyadenylation of Escherichia coli transcripts play an integral role in regulating intracellular levels of polynucleotide phosphorylase and RNase E.  Mol. Microbiol. 45:  1315-1324.
  • Ow, M.C., Q. Liu, B.K. Mohanty, M.E. Andrew, V.F. Maples and S.R. Kushner. 2002. RNase E levels in Escherichia coli are controlled by a complex regulatory system that involves transcription of the rne gene from three promoters. Mol. Microbiol. 43:  159-172.
  • Mohanty, B.K. and S.R. Kushner. 2000. Polynucleotide phosphorylase functions both as a 3->5' exonuclease and a poly(A) polymerase in Escherichia coli. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:  11966-11971.
  • Mohanty, B.K. and S.R. Kushner. 2000. Polynucleotide phosphorylase, RNase II and RNase E play different roles in the in vivo modulation of polyadenylation in Escherichia coli. Mol. Microbiol. 36:982-994.
  • Mohanty, B.K. and S.R. Kushner. 1999. Analysis of the function of Escherichia coli poly(A) polymerase I in RNA metabolism. Mol. Microbiol. 34:  1094-1108.
  • Mohanty, B.K. and S.R. Kushner. 1999. Residual polyadenylation in poly(A) polymerase I (pcnB) mutants of Escherichia coli does not result from the activity encoded by the f310 gene. Mol. Microbiol. 34:  1109-1119.