Chanakya University School of Biosciences

Dr. Krishna Kurthkoti

Designation: Associate Professor

Qualification: 
Post-doc: Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute, New Jersey School of Medical Sciences, Rutgers University

Ph.D: Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India

Research Areas:
Metal homeostasis, nutritional immunity, evolution of antimicrobial resistance, bacterial DNA repair and mycobacterial biofilms

Awards and achievements: 

  • 2016: Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, Department of Biotechnology.
  • 2005: Senior Research Fellowship, CSIR
  • 2003: Junior Research Fellowship/ NET, CSIR
  • 2003: Summer Research Fellowship, Indian Academy of Sciences

Extramural Funded Projects:

S.No Funding agency Title of the research Duration Sanctioned amount
1Department of Biotechnology (DBT)Characterization of iron starvation induced dormancy in mycobacteria and its applicationin drug discovery (Ramalingaswami Re-entry fellowship)6 years (2017-2023)₹ 1.03 crore
2Science and Engineering Research Board (Core research grant)Deciphering the role of mycobacterial error-prone polymerase DnaE2 in antibiotic persistence and conferring adaptation to stress during biofilm formation.3 years (2019-2022)₹ 39.5 lakh

Publication list:

  1. Salini S, Balaji M, Sinchana G Bhat, Ajay Kumar and Krishna Kurthkoti. Mycobacterial membrane protein complex MSMEG_1381 and MSMEG_1382 functions as a novel efflux pump in conferring resistance to multiple antibiotics. Preprints doi: 10.20944/preprints202204.0003.v2  Microbial Pathogenesis (manuscript accepted)
  2. Jijimole G R , Lakshmi Edison , Sajith Raghunandanan , Akhil P , Krishna Kurthkoti and Ajay Kumar.        Rv1255c, a dormancy-related transcriptional regulator of TetR family in Mycobacterium tuberculosis enhances   isoniazid tolerance in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Journal of Antibiotics (manuscript accepted) 
  3. R. Shyama Prasad Rao, Sudeep D. Ghate, Rajesh P. Shastry, Krishna Kurthkoti, Prashanth Suravajhala, Prakash Patil and Praveenkumar Shetty. Prevalence and heterogeneity of antibiotic-resistant genes in Orientia tsutsugamushi and other rickettsial genomes bioRxiv preprint server doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.17.504356 (manuscript in press) Microbial Pathogenesis                      corresponding author (Impact factor 3.8)
  4. Salini S, Sinchana G Bhat, Natesh R, R Ajay Kumar, and Krishna Kurthkoti# (2022). The error-prone polymerase DnaE2 mediates the evolution of antibiotic resistance in persister mycobacterial cells Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, ASM press, 66(3):e0177321 # corresponding author. (Impact factor 5.9)  
  5. Kurthkoti K, Sang. P.B, Pradeep Kumar and Umesh Varshney (2020).  Base excision repair in pathogenic bacteria: New promises for an old problem. Future Medicinal Chemistry 12(4): 339-355 (co-corresponding author) (Impact factor 3.7)
  6. Krishna Kurthkoti, Hamel Amin, Mohlopheni Marakalala, Saleena Ghanny, Selvakumar Subbian, Alexandra Sakatos, Jonathan Livny, Sarah Fortune, Michael Berney and G Marcela Rodriguez (2017). Mycobacterium tuberculosis’ capacity to survive iron-starvation might enable it to persist in iron-deprived microenvironments of human granulomas. mBio, Vol 8 e01092 (Impact factor 6.9; * equal contribution)
  7. Xiao Peng Xiong, Krishna Kurthkoti, Kungyen Chang, Jian-Liang, Ren Xing Jie Nij Q Tariq Rana, Rui Zhou (2016). miR-34 Modulates Innate Immunity and Ecdysone Signalling in Drosophila PLOS Pathogens doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1006034. (Impact factor 7.64)
  8. Kurthkoti K, Priyanka Tare, Rakhi Paitchowdhury, Vaikuntanaga Gowthami Maria J. Garcia, Roberto Colangeli Dipankar Chatterjee, Valakunja Nagaraja, G. Marcela Rodriguez. (2015). The mycobacterial iron dependent regulator IdeR induces ferritin (bfrB) by alleviating Lsr2 repression. Molecular Microbiology 98(5):864-77. (Impact factor 4.42)
  9. Xiao-Peng Xiong, Georg Vogler, Krishna Kurthkoti, Anastasia Samsonova, Rui Zhou (2015). SmD1 modulates the miRNA pathway independently of its pre-mRNA splicing function. PLOSGenetics  doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005475. (Impact factor 7.17)
  10. Xiong XP, Kurthkoti K, Chang KY, Lichinchi G, De N, Schneemann A, Macrae IJ, Rana TM, Perrimon N, Zhou R (2013). Core small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle splicing factor SmD1 modulates RNA interference in Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 110(41):16520-5. (Impact factor 9.67)
  11. Rex K, Kurthkoti K, Varshney U. (2013). Hypersensitivity of hypoxia grown Mycobacterium smegmatis to DNA damaging agents: Implications of the DNA repair deficiencies in attenuation of mycobacteria. Mech Ageing Dev, 134(10): 516-22. (Impact factor 3.40)
  12. Parikh A, Kumar D, Chawla Y, Kurthkoti K, Khan S, Varshney U, Nandicoori VK (2013) Development of new generation of vectors for gene expression, gene replacement and protein-protein interaction studies in mycobacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol, 79(5):1718-29. (Impact factor 3.67)
  13. Kurthkoti K and Umesh Varshney. (2012). Distinct mechanisms of DNA repair in mycobacteria and their implications in attenuation of the pathogen growth. Mechanisms of Aging and Development 133(4):138-46. (Impact factor 3.4)
  14. Kurthkoti K and Varshney U. (2011).  Base excision and nucleotide excision repair pathways in mycobacteria. Tuberculosis, 91(6): 533-43. (Impact factor 2.7)
  15. Kurthkoti K and Varshney U. Detrimental effects of hypoxia specific expression of uracil DNA glycosylase (Ung) in Mycobacterium smegmatis. (2010).  J Bacteriol, 192, 6439-46. (Impact factor 2.8)
  16. Malshetty V, Kurthkoti K, China A, Mallick B, Yamunadevi S, Sang PB, Srinivasan N, Nagaraja V and Varshney U. (2010). Novel insertion and deletion mutants of RpoB which render Mycobacterium smegmatis RNA polymerase recalcitrant to rifampicin mediated inhibition of transcription. Microbiology 156, 1565-73. (Impact factor 2.56)
  17. Malshetty VS, Jain R, Srinath T, Kurthkoti K and Varshney U. (2010). Synergistic effects of UdgB and Ung in mutation prevention and protection against commonly encountered DNA damaging agents in Mycobacterium smegmatis Microbiology 156, 940-949. (Impact factor 2.56)
  18. Kurthkoti K, Srinath. T, Kumar P., Malshetty VS, Sang PB, Jain R, Manjunath R and Varshney U. A distinct physiological role of MutY in mutation prevention in mycobacteria. (2010). Microbiology, 156, 88-93. (Impact factor 2.56)
  19. Kurthkoti K, Kumar P, Jain R. and Varshney U. (2008). Important role of the nucleotide excision repair pathway in Mycobacterium smegmatis in conferring protection against commonly encountered DNA-damaging agents. Microbiology 154, 2776-2785. (Impact factor 2.56)
  20. Kumar P, Krishna K, Srinivasan R, Ajitkumar P and Varshney U. (2004). Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Escherichia coli nucleoside diphosphate kinases lack multifunctional activities to process uracil containing DNA. DNA Repair 3, 1483-1492. (Impact factor 3.36)

Book Chapter:

  1. Emerging Concepts in Bacterial Biofilms: Molecular Mechanisms and Control Strategies. Sabu Thomas & Divya. M. Prabhakaran (Eds.). UK. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Reg Number: 04333775. Kurthkoti K (2020). Perspectives in mycobacterial biofilms and its role in drug tolerance.

Membership to Societies:

  • Member New York Academy of Sciences (Postdoctoral Member)
  • American Society for Microbiology (Postdoctoral Member) 
  • Society for Biological Chemists, India (Life membership)