Principal Investigator

Previous experience:

Academic positions:
October 2018-August 2020: Chairman, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka
Dec 1997 – to Present: Professor, Dept. Of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. University of Dhaka.
Dec 1991 – Dec 1997: Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka.
March 1988 – Dec 1991: Assist. Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka.

Professor Zeba I. Seraj has been teaching in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology since 1988. Her courses include Plant Molecular Biology with emphasis on stress biology as well as Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology.She received her training in Molecular Genetics and Molecular Biology at the Universities of Glasgow (HnRNP particles of Rat Liver Proteins), where she received her Ph.D. in 1986 and University of Liverpool (Characterization of a bovine cDNA library) where she did a short Postdoc. After joining the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh in 1988, she has been mainly working on the Molecular Biology of Rice salinity tolerance. She also did some work on Jute regeneration and transformation. Recently she has started work on characterization of constitutive and salt-inducible promoters.

Zeba has been collaborating with the International Rice research Institute where she has spent some time occasionally as a visiting scientist. She has spent a few months as a visiting scientist at UT, Austin and at the Rice Research Station at Beaumont, Texas. Her current professional duties apart from teaching and research include membership of the editorial panel of the Journal Bangladesh Association of Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology (www.baptcb.org) and Membership of the Core Committee on Biosafety of the Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment, Government of Bangladesh, since 2009 to date.

• October 2013-August 2021-Visiting Researcher without pay at the Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin (for collaborative work on rice salt tolerance).
• Aug 15 2005-Dec 15, 2005: Visiting Researcher, Mol and Dev Cell Biol, Univ Texas at Austin.
• Aug 4-16, 2003: Visiting Scientist, USDA Research Station at Beaumont, Texas.
• Aug 15-Sept 3, 2001: Cochran Fellow for current status of crop transformation, Washington DC. Jan 02-March 31, 1998: Visiting Scientist, IRRI, Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory.
• May 1986-July 1987: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Liverpool, UK.
• Jan 2015 to date: Director, CBLAST, DU. Center for Bioinformatics Learning and Systematics Training, Dhaka University.

• Amin, U. M., Parvez, N., Rahman, T. A., Hasan, M. R., Das, K. C., Jahan, S., … & Salimullah, M. (2022). CDKAL1 gene rs7756992 A/G and rs7754840 G/C polymorphisms are associated with gestational diabetes mellitus in a sample of Bangladeshi population: implication for future T2DM prophylaxis. Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome, 14(1), 18.
• Sarker, P. K., Karmoker, D., Shohan, M. U. S., Saha, A. K., Rima, F. S., Begum, R. A., … & Seraj, Z. I. (2023). Effects of multiple halotolerant rhizobacteria on the tolerance, growth, and yield of rice plants under salt stress. Folia Microbiologica, 68(1), 55-72.
• Haque, T., Elias, S. M., Razzaque, S., Biswas, S., Khan, S. F., Jewel, G. N. A., … & Seraj, Z. I. (2022). Salt tolerance QTLs of an endemic rice landrace, Horkuch at seedling and reproductive stages. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 17306.
• Maisha, M. H., Islam, T., Eva, A. H., Alam, M. N. U., Habiba, U., Azim, T., … & Sarkar, R. H. (2022). Anatomical and karyotypic comparison of induced tetraploid of Oryza sativa var Latisail with the allotetraploid halophytic wild rice Oryza coarctata. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 1-19.
• Haque, U. S., Elias, S. M., Jahan, I., & Seraj, Z. I. (2022). Functional genomic analysis of K+ related salt-responsive transporters in tolerant and sensitive genotypes of rice. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13.
• Md Adnan Karim, Takim Sarker, Abdus Samad et al. Computational design of potential siRNA molecules for silencing of protease (3LC-like proteinase) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene of SARS-CoV-2 by RNAi technology, 16 August 2022, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1936787/v1]
• Alam, M. N. U., Jewel, G. N. A., Azim, T., & Seraj, Z. I. (2021). Novel QTLs for salinity tolerance revealed by genome-wide association studies of biomass, chlorophyll and tissue ion content in 176 rice landraces from Bangladesh. PLoS One, 16(11), e0259456.
• Seraj, Z. I., & Hque, S. (2021). Remodelling of a bacterial immune system as the simple gene editing tool, Crispr-Cas, for food security and human health. Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, 45(2), 131-145.
• Taslima Haque, Sabrina M Elias, Samsad Razzaque, Sudip Biswas, Sumaiya Farah Khan, G.M. Nurnabi Azad Jewel, Md. Sazzadur Rahman, Thomas E. Juenger, Zeba I Seraj. Natural variation in growth and physiology under salt stress in rice: QTL mapping in a Horkuch × IR29 mapping population at seedling and reproductive stages. BioRxiv, March, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.01.971895
• SM Elias, MS Rahman, SF Khan, S Biswas, T Haque, S Razzaque. Combination of traits at two developmental stages under salt stress as a measure of tolerance in a reciprocally crossed rice (Oryza sativa) population. Crop and Pasture Science 71(4):334 • January 2020.
• Aftab Uz Zaman Noor, G. M. Nurnabi Azad Jewel, Taslima Haque, Sabrina M. Elias, Sudip Biswas, Md. Sazzadur Rahman & Zeba I. Seraj. Validation of QTLs in Bangladeshi rice landrace Horkuch responsible for salt tolerance in seedling stage and maturation. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum volume 41, Article number: 173 (2019).
• Sudip Biswas, Md Nazrul Islam, Sarah Sarker, Narendra Tuteja, Zeba I Seraj. Overexpression of heterotrimeric G protein beta subunit gene (OsRGB1) confers both heat and salinity stress tolerance in rice. Plant Physiol Biochem. 2019 Nov;144:334-344
• Samsad Razzaque, Sabrina M. Elias, Taslima Haque, Sudip Biswas, G. M. Nurnabi Azad Jewel, Sazzadur Rahman, Xiaoyu Weng, Abdelbagi M. Ismail, Harkamal Walia, Thomas E. Juenger & Zeba I. Seraj Gene Expression analysis associated with salt stress in a reciprocally crossed rice population. Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 8249 (2019).
• Mohammad Umer Sharif Shohan1, Souvik Sinha2, Fahmida Habib Nabila1, Shubhra Ghosh Dastidar2 and Zeba I. Seraj1*. HKT1;5 Transporter Gene Expression and Association of Amino Acid Substitutions with Salt Tolerance Across Rice Genotypes. Front. Plant Sci., 04 November 2019.
• Samsad Razzaque, Sabrina M. Elias, Taslima Haque, Sudip Biswas, G. M. Nurnabi Azad Jewel, Sazzadur Rahman, Xiaoyu Weng, Abdelbagi M. Ismail, Harkamal Walia, Thomas E. Juenger & Zeba I. Seraj. Gene Expression analysis associated with salt stress in a reciprocally crossed rice population. Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 8249 (2019).
• TM Tareq, MS Rahman, NA Jewel, T Islam, H Shimono, ZI Seraj. Relative Response of Indigenous Rice Genotypes to Low Versus Normal Planting Density for Determination of Differential Phenotypic Plasticity in Traits Related to Grain Yield. Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology 28(1):109 • June 2018.
• Sudip Biswas, U. S. Mahzabin Amin, Sarah Sarker, M. Sazzadur Rahman, Ruhul Amin, Rezaul Karim, Narendra Tuteja & Zeba I. Seraj. Introgression, Generational Expression and Salinity Tolerance Conferred by the Pea DNA Helicase 45 Transgene into Two Commercial Rice Genotypes, BR28 and BR47, Molecular Biotechnology volume 60, pages111–123(2018).
• N Ferdous, SM Elias, ZH Howlader, SK Biswas, MS Rahman, KK Habiba. Profiling Bangladeshi rice diversity based on grain size and amylose content using molecular. Current Plant Biology 14, 56-65, 2018.
• Tasnim Ahmed, Sudip Biswas, Sabrina M. Elias, M. Sazzadur Rahman, Narendra Tuteja & Zeba I. Seraj. In Planta transformation for conferring salt tolerance to a tissue-culture unresponsive indica rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology – Plant volume 54, pages154–165(2018).
• Fahmida Sultana Rima, Sudip Biswas, Protup Kumer Sarker, Md. Rakibul Islam & Zeba I. Seraj. Bacteria endemic to saline coastal belt and their ability to mitigate the effects of salt stress on rice growth and yields Annals of Microbiology volume 68, pages 525–535(2018).
• Razzaque S, Haque T, Elias SM, Rahman MS, Biswas S, Schwartz S, Ismail AM, Walia H, Juenger TE, Seraj ZI. Reproductive stage physiological and transcriptional responses to salinity stress in reciprocal populations derived from tolerant (Horkuch) and susceptible (IR29) rice. Scientific Reports. 2017;7
• Yasmin F, Biswas S, Jewel GN, Elias SM, Seraj ZI. Constitutive Overexpression of the Plasma Membrane Na+/H+ Antiporter for Conferring Salinity Tolerance in Rice. Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology. 2016 Jan 4;25(2):257-72.
• Shahid S, Begum R, Razzaque S, Seraj ZI. Variability in amylose content of Bangladeshi rice cultivars due to unique SNPs in Waxy allele. Journal of Cereal Science. 2016 Sep 30; 71:1-9.
• Amin US, Biswas S, Elias SM, Razzaque S, Haque T, Malo R, Seraj ZI. Enhanced Salt Tolerance Conferred by the Complete 2.3 kb cDNA of the Rice Vacuolar Na+/H+ Antiporter Gene Compared to 1.9 kb Coding Region with 5′ UTR in Transgenic Lines of Rice. Frontiers in plant science. 2016;7.
• Parvin S, Biswas S, Razzaque S, Haque T, Elias SM, Tammi RS, Seraj ZI(2015) Salinity and drought tolerance conferred by in planta transformation of SNAC1 transcription factor into a high-yielding rice variety of Bangladesh. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 37 (4):1-12
• Biswas S, Razzaque S, Elias SM, Amin UM, Haque T, Islam ST, Lisa LA, Naznin F, Rasul NM, Seraj ZI(2015) Effect of the vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter transgene in a rice landrace and a commercial rice cultivar after its insertion by crossing. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 37 (1):1-10
• Sarker S, Tammi R, Biswas S, Zaman S, Seraj ZI (2015) Cloning and Characterization of a Tissue Specific Promoter GluB-1 from Nipponbare by Transformation in Rice. Biores Comm 1 (2):69
• Razzaque S., Chakraborty D., Tammi R.S., Elias S.M., Seraj Z.I. and Islam A. (2014) Cloning of Three Antiporter Genes from Arabidopsis and Rice for Over-Expressing Them in Farmer Popular Tomato Varieties of Bangladesh. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 5, 3957-3963. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ajps.2014.526414
• Razzaque S., Elias S.M., Biswas S., Haque T., and Seraj Z.I. (2014). Cloning of the plasma membrane sodium/hydrogen antiporter SOS1 for its over expression in rice. Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology 23, 263-273.
• Yesmin N., Elias S.M., Rahman M.S., Haque T., Mahbub Hasan A., and Seraj Z.I. (2014). Unique Genotypic Differences Discovered among Indigenous Bangladeshi Rice Landraces. International journal of genomics 2014. ID: 210328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/210328
• Elias SM, Begum R, Rahman MR, Ferdouse A, Shozib HB, Ali MM and Seraj ZI (2015). “Genotypic and phenotypic relatedness of a farmer-discovered variant with high yielding rice growing in the same field”. Plant Systematics and Evolution. 301 (1), 451-465.Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s00606-014-1085-x.
• Mohammad Arif Ashraf, Sudip Biswas, SamsadRazzaque, TaslimaHaque and Zeba I Seraj(2014).Cloning and Characterization of Alcohol Dehydrogenase (Adh) Promoter Region for Expression Under Submergence and Salinity Stress. Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech 24: 111-120.
• Khan MK, Zaman S, Chakraborty S, Chakravorty R, Alam MM, Bhuiyan TR, Rahman MJ, Fernandez C, Qadri F and Seraj ZI (2014). “In silico predicted mycobacterial epitope elicits in vitro T-cell responses”. Mol. Immunol 61: 16-22. Elsevier. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molimm.2014.04.009
• Lisa LA, Seraj ZI, Elahi CMF, Das KC, Biswas K, Islam MR, Salam MA and Gomosta AR (2004). Genetic variation in microsatellite DNA, physiology and morphology of coastal saline rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces of Bangladesh. Plant & Soil. 263 (1-2): 213-228.
• Lisa LA, Elias SM, Rahman MS, Shahid S, Iwasaki T, Hasan M, Kosuge K, Fukami Y and Seraj ZI (2011). Physiology and gene expression of the rice landrace Horkuch under salt stress. Functional Plant Biology, 38: 282–292
• Alam R, Rahman MS, Seraj ZI, Thomson MJ, Ismail AM, Tumimbang-Raiz E and Gregorio GB (2010). Investigation of seedling-stage salinity tolerance QTLs using backcross lines derived from Oryza sativa L. Pokkali. Plant Breeding 130: 430-437. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0523.2010.01837. Wiley Blackwell publications.
• Rahman MS, Das KC, Das DK, Biswas K, Chowdhury MBH, Karim NH, Salam MA and Seraj ZI(2010). Breeding and anther-derived lines of rice for saline coastal areas of Bangladesh. Bang J Bot39: 71-78.
• Thomson MJ, de Ocampo M, Egdane J, Rahman MA, Sajise AG, Adorada DL, Tumimbang-Raiz E, Blumwald E, Seraj ZI, Singh RK, Gregorio GB and Ismail (2010). Characterizing the Saltol Quantitative Trait Locus for Salinity Tolerance in Rice. Rice 3:148-160
• Amin M, Elias SM, Hossain A, Ferdousi A, Rahman MS, Tuteja N, Seraj ZI (2012). Over-expression of a DEAD-box helicase, PDH45, confers both seedling and reproductive stage stress tolerance to rice (Oryza sativa L.). Mol. Breeding 30: 345-354. DOI 10.1007/s11032-011-9625-3
• Islam SMT, Tammi RS, Singla-Pareek SL, Seraj ZI (2010). Enhanced Salinity Tolerance and improved yield properties in Bangladeshi rice Binnatoa through Agrobacterium Mediated Transformation of PgNHX1 from P. glaucum. ActaPhysiol Plant 32: 657-663
• Elias SM, Hasan AKMM and Seraj ZI (2011). Microsatellite marker diversity and sequence polymorph hismin the red gene locus of indigenous rice populations of Bangladesh. Plant Syst Evol.296:157-165. DOI 10.1007/s00606-011-0482-7
• Shahid S, Elias SM, Biswas S, Seraj ZI (2010). READS- a resource for plant non-coding regulatory sequence analysis. Plant Tissue Cult. & Biotech. 20: 211-223

• Seraj, Z. I., Islam, A. S., & Sarker, R. H. (2022). Challenges of Jute Transformation. In The Jute Genome (pp. 115-120). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
• Seraj, Z., Elias, S., Shahid, S., Haque, T., Malo, R., & Shohan, M. U. S. (2022). Deciphering comparative and structural variation that regulates abiotic stress response. In Bioinformatics in Agriculture (pp. 561-586). Academic Press.
• ZI Seraj, SM Elias, S Biswas, N Tuteja. Helicases and Their Importance in Abiotic Stresses. Salinity Responses and Tolerance in Plants, Volume 2, pp.119-141,june, 2018
• SM Elias, T Haque, NA Jewel, TR Sunfi. Combination of DNA markers and eQTL information for introgression of multiple salt-tolerance traits in rice. Advancement in Crop Improvement Techniques, pp.1-22, 2020.
• ZI Seraj, MUS Shohan, SM Elias, U Habiba, S Biswas, N Tuteja. The scope of transformation and genome editing for quantitative trait improvements in rice. Advancement in Crop Improvement Techniques, 23-43, Advancement in Crop Improvement Techniques, 2020,
• MA Salam, MR Islam, MS Rahman, MA Rahman, MAR Bhuiyan, ZI Seraj, TL Aditya, MK Uddin, MK Mandal, AM Ismail, DL Adorada, RD Mendoza, EB Tumimbang-Raiz and GB Gregorio (2010). In Tropical Deltas and coastal zones: Food production, communities and environment at the land-water interface. Eds: CT Hoanh et al. CAB International. Pp 183-198.
• Hossain Mahabub and SerajZeba I (2008). Biotechnology for crop improvement: global status and potential gains for Bangladesh. In: ‘Emerging issues in Bangladesh economy’, ed, Osmani SR, CPD, University Press Ltd, Dhaka, pp 83-100.
• Zeba I. Seraj, Laisa A. Lisa, M. Rafiqul Islam, Rokeya Begum and Deepok K. Das (2006). Genetic diversity of saline coastal rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces of Bangladesh. In: Abiotic stress tolerance of plants. Towards the improvement of global environment and food. Eds.: Rai, Aswani K and Takabe, Teruhiro, SpringerVerlag, pp. 229-244
• Elahi CMF, Seraj ZI, Rasul NM, Das KC, Biswas K, Salam MA, GomostaAR,Tumimbang E, Adorada D, Gregorio G, Bennett J. (2004). Breeding rice for salinity tolerance using the Pokkali allele: finding a linked DNA marker. In:In Vitro Culture, Transformation and Molecular markers for Crop Improvement. Ed. Islam AS. Science Publishers, Inc., USA, pp 157-170.
• Seraj Z I, Khan H, Sarker RH, Khan S N and Islam AS (2004). Harnessing Biotechnology. In: Bangladesh in the New Millenium, A Dhaka University Study. Ed. AbulKalam, University Press Limited, Dhaka, Bangladesh, pp 393-421.
• Seraj ZI, Hossain MB, Rasul NM, Akhter , Khan H, Hossain S, Salam MA and Gregorio G (2002). Agrobacterium mediated transformation of Bangladesh indica rice for conferring salt tolerance. In: R. Ahmad and KA Malik (eds.). Prospects for saline agriculture. Pages 167-176. Kluwer Academic Netherlands.
• Islam AS, Haque MM, Hoque MI and Seraj ZI (1992). Tissue Culture and micropropagation of jute (Corchorus spp.).InBiotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry Vol. 19 High tech and Micropropation III. Ed. YPS Bagaj. Springer Veriag,Berlin, Heidelberg PP 505-526.-(3)
• Knowler JT, McGregor CW and Islam Z (1986), Ribonuleooprotein particles containing heterogenous nuclear RNA. In Nuclear Structures: Their isolation and characterization (MacGillivray A J and Birnie G D eds.) PP 118-129. Butterworths Scientific, London.

• Her team’s focus is on producing rice tolerant to saline stress, suitable for growth in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Any improved rice variety for the coastal region will make major impacts in the livelihoods of the resource-poor farmers of the region, in addition to increasing total rice production, which is important to maintain self-sufficiency in our staple food.
• Her laboratory has been successful in establishing DNA marker-based breeding for development of salt tolerant strains of rice in collaboration with IRRI. While Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has done the breeding, her team has identified suitable progenies having the salt tolerance loci over several generations, and thus helped speed up the breeding process using molecular technologies. In collaboration with IRRI, they are also engaged in characterizing QTLs/genes from salt tolerant rice landraces
• In collaboration with ICGEB, New Dehli, Zeba’s team has successfully produced transgenic rice with the Pea Helicase gene which shows enhanced salt tolerance over control. The gene is now being tested for conferment of salt tolerance in farmer popular rice genotypes. Transformation work with transcription factor genes is also in various stages of development.
• Her team is also collaborating with ICDDR,B and Stockholm University, in use of Rice to produce recombinant vaccines.

• Dr. Noorain M. Rasul, 2005: Isolation and Characterization of Vacuolar OsNHX1 and its Expression in Transgenic Rice. This student is now working in a Biotech Company in Dhaka, Bangladesh called Apex.
• Dr. Laisa A. Lisa, 2006: Molecular Investigation on Salt Tolerance of Coastal Rice Landraces at Reproductive and Seedling Stages. This student is now an associate professor in the Dept of Biotechnology and Microbiology at the Jagannath University in Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Dr. Md. Sazzadur Rahman, 2017: Genotypic and Phenotypic characterization of ‘Saltol’ introgression lines for release as high yielding salt tolerant rice. He is Senior Scientific officer at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI)
• Dr. Richard Malo, 2017: Development of rice tolerant to heat during flowering. Richard is currently working as a Biochemist, Sishu Sastho Foundation Hospital, Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) Dhaka Bangladesh
• Dr. Sabrina M Elias, 2018: Identification, characterization and validation of the genes involved in salt tolerance of the rice (Oryza sativa L. indica) landrace Horkuch and its segregating population using RAD-genotyping and RNA-sequencing under salinity stress. Sabrina is currently working as a Post Doctoral associate in Plant Biotechnology Lab, BMB, University of Dhaka.
• Dr. Sumaiya Farah Khan, 2018 : Characterization of a Bangladeshi rice landrace Horkuch as a suitable donor for salinity tolerance traits for development of new salt tolerant rice cultivars. Sumaiya is currently working as an assistant Professor in Jagannath University
• 4 more Ph.D. students are in various stages of progress.
• Zeba has supervised M.Sc Research work and Dissertation thesis of more than 50 students/research associates in plant biotechnology and plant molecular biology

• Marker-assisted backcrossing to produce salt tolerant versions of the mega rice varieties BR11 and BRRIdhan28. BR11-Saltol already provided to BRRI for multiplication
• Saltol-linked marker validation in breeding populations
• Search for salinity tolerance QTLs from Bangladesh landraces, e.g. Boilam, Horkuch
• Sequence analysis of the waxy and red pericarp gene in Bangladesh landraces
• Analyzing the difference between cultivated rice and farmer-derived variant.
• Isolation and characterization of salt-inducible promoters from salt tolerant rice landraces
• Cloning and subcloning of genes reported to confer salt tolerance for Agrobacterium-mediated rice transformation
• Rice transformation with genes reported to confer salt tolerance; assessment of tolerance and crossing transgene into farmer-popular rice background. Characterization of agronomic properties of modern rice after incorporation of transgene.
• Use of the rice seed for delivery of recombinant protein