Our planet Earth is home to estimated 350,000 plant species. There is enormous chemical diversity in these plant species, which mainly comes from specialized metabolites selected throughout the course of evolution. Plant specialized metabolism has been harnessed for various purposes including food/agriculture, traditional and modern medicine out of many others. We are interested in investigating diverse natives of Florida and also other species for plant specialized metabolites of agricultural and pharmaceutical value in order to understand the chemical diversity and decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying these useful compounds by employing multi-disciplinary approaches such as mass spectrometry, RNA-seq, gene discovery, functional genomics including gene-editing approaches.
Dr. Satya Swathi Nadakuduti
Dr. Satya Swathi Nadakuduti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Horticulture at the University of Florida. Dr. Nadakuduti received her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology from Michigan State University. Her lab is interested in studying plants specialized metabolism in order to understand the chemical diversity, identify compounds that have pharmaceutical value, their potential for health benefits and applications in agriculture. Her research program integrates multi-disciplinary approaches such as biochemistry, genomics, gene discovery and functional characterization to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the biosynthesis of these compounds. Her group is also interested in targeted genome modifications using gene-editing technology such as CRISPR/Cas9 for agriculture crop improvement, as functional genomics tool and to understand genome-wide off-target affects caused by gene-editing reagents. Her group is interested in micropropagation and implementing gene-editing in medicinally relevant plant species.
LAB NEWS
September 2024
USDA- NIFA funding to evaluate genome-edited citrus for resistance to HLB and citrus canker.
Dr. Nadakuduti and Co-PDs, Dr. Zhanao Deng from Gulf Coast Research and Education Center and Dr. John Chater from Citrus research and education center are awarded USDA- NIFA funding to evaluate genome-edited citrus for resistance to HLB and citrus canker. Nadakuduti lab is looking forward to this collaboration and important work related to devastating citrus greening disease.
August 2024
Dr. Nadakuduti will lead a team of interdisciplinary researchers seeking to decipher the multi-step process through which mitragyna produces pharmaceutical monoterpene indole alkaloids.
WGCU Interview
We learn about kratom and new research underway at UF to better understand its effects
August 2024
Nadakuduti lab welcomes two new students, Harjot Kaur from Punjab Agricultural University and Nidhi Uppal from Texas Tech to join our lab. Welcome!!
June 2024
Nadakuduti lab receives USDA- NIFA funding to study Mitragyna
This project will generate genomic resources and study the biosynthesis of pharmaceutical alkaloids in kratom.
Nadakuduti lab is actively seeking a postdoc and/ or a PhD student to work on this project.
June 2024
Nadakuduti lab along with multidisciplinary team of researchers from UF college of Pharmacy participated in a journalistic documentary film by elm city films “The Mysteries of Kratom” that will be aired soon!!
May 2024
Nadakuduti lab receives USDA – Physiology of Agricultural Plants funding to understand KNOX regulon in tomato
This project will dissect molecular mechanisms underlying KNOX regulatory network to enhance fruit photosynthesis and thereby nutritional quality using Tomato as a model system.
Nadakuduti lab is actively seeking a postdoc to work on this project.
April 2024
Pavithra Ramachandria, undergraduate researcher in Nadakuduti lab presents a poster at the 25th Annual Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium at Stephen C. O’ Connell Center organized by Center for Undergraduate Research at University of Florida. It is one of the largest campus-wide undergraduate research symposia!!
Feb 2024
Dr. Nadakuduti (right) was an invited speaker at the “Third International Kratom Symposium” held at the College of Pharmacy Lake Nona campus, University of Florida.
Spring 2024
Nadakuduti launched and taught a new university-wide Quest 2 course for undergraduate students, “Plants for Human Medicine” that fulfills general education in biological sciences. It was a lot of fun interacting with bright students across the campus!
