Dr. Shazia Rehman

Biography:

Dr. Shazia Rehman is a Plant scientist, holding Ph.D. degree in Plant biochemistry and molecular biology from Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad. During her Ph.D, she worked on tomato proteinase inhibitor-II (PI-II) gene (a candidate gene for insect resistance) and studied its functional role in transgenic Nicotiana bethamania with pCAMBIA1391Z_OsRGLP2:PI-II construct under abiotic stresses (ABA, MEJA, wounding and salt stresses). With this work, she published first report with overexpression of tomato PI-II gene under rice root germin-like protein 2 (OsRGLP2) promoter against salt stress. She also got an 8-months placement at Copenhagen University, Denmark as a visiting researcher during Ph.d to conduct a part of her research work on physiological responses of transgenic plants under abiotic stresses with PI-II gene. During this period, she also initiated a bioinformatic study on serpins (a specialized class of serine proteinase inhibitor), in Brachypodium, together with a group of Prof. Søren K. Rasmussen and Bodil Jorgensen at Copenhagen University. Currently, she is working as a Lecturer in the Department of Botany, Rawalpindi Women University, 6th Road Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. In addition she is also departmental coordinator and active member of Green Youth Movement (GYM) Club Society. She has more than 4 year of experience in teaching and research in the field of Botany. Her major field of interest are Molecular Biology, Genomics, Bioinformatics, Phylogenetics, Plant Physiology and Phytochemistry. She has published numerous research articles and reviews on issues and research associated with increasing plant tolerance under stress condition, microbiology, and on pharmaceutical applications of algae in international reputed journals and has presented her research accomplishments in national and international conferences in Pakistan and Denmark. She is also reviewer of many international journals of high repute. From 2019, Dr. Rehman has also established collaborations with different researchers to develop research activities on microbiology related projects and pharmaceutical applications of medicinal plants and algae.

Brief statement of Research Interest:

My research during the last six years had been focused on exploring physiological and biochemical mechanisms of crop plants subjected to major stresses including drought, heat, cold salinity, and herbivory individually or in combination. The bulk of my work involves the characterization of stress responsive genes and transcription factors from plants and understanding the underlying mechanism in improving stress tolerance of crops through genetic engineering.

Qualification:

PhD (Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) 2012-2018; Quaid-i-azam University Islamabad, Pakistan

Honors and Awards:

  1. HEC IRSIP Ph.D. Fellowship, 05/2015-01/2016
  2. HEC Indigenous Ph.d fellowship, 2012-2015
  3. HEC M.Sc Fellowship under Talent Farming Scheme, 2008-2010

Supervisions:

Supervised BS and Master Students

Service Activity: On Job

Journal Publications:

  1. Haider S, Rehman S, Ahmad Y, Raza A, Tabassum J, Javed T, Osman HS, Mahmood T. (2021) In Silico Characterization and Expression Profiles of Heat Shock Transcription Factors (HSFs) in Maize (Zea mays L.). Agronomy, 11, 2335. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112335
  2. Rehman S, Jørgensen B, Aziz E, Batool R, Naseer S, Rasmussen SK (2020). Genome Wide Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Serpin Gene Family in Brachypodium and Barley. Plants. 9(11): 1439; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9111439
  3. Rehman S, Mahmood, Aziz E, Batool R (2020). Identification of novel mutations in SARS-COV2 isolates from Turkey. Archives of Virology. 165, pages 2937–2944(2020) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-020-04830-0
  4. Mehmood A, Naseer S, Ali A, Fatimah H, Rehman S, Kiani A (2020). Identification of novel vaccine candidates against carbapenem resistant Klebsiella pneumonia: A systematic reverse proteomic approach. Computational Biology and Chemistry. 89, 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2020.107380
  5. Aziz E, Batool R, Akhtar W, Rehman S, Shahzad T, Malik A, Shariati MA, Laishevtcev A, Plygun S, Heydari M, Rauf A, Ahmed Arif S (2020). Xanthophyll: Health benefits and therapeutic insights. Life Sciences, 240, 1-12 doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2019.117104
  6. Aziz E, Batool R, Khan MU, Rauf A, Akhtar W, Heydari M, Rehman S, Shahzad T, Malik A, Mosavat SH, Plygun S, Shariati MA (2020). An Overview on Red Algae Bioactive Compounds and their Pharmaceutical Applications. Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, 17(4): 1-21, 10.1515/jcim-2019-0203
  7. Ilyas M, Akhtar W, Rehman S, Naqvi SMS, Mahmood T (2019). Functional characterization of the rice root Germin-like protein gene-1 (OsRGLP1) promoter in Nicotiana tabacum. 3 Biotech 9:130
  8. Aziz E, Batool R, Akhtar W, Rehman S, Gregersen PL, Mahmood T (2019). Expression analysis of the polyphenol oxidase gene in response to signaling molecules, herbivory and wounding in antisense transgenic tobacco plants. 3 Biotech. DOI: 10.1007/s13205-019-1587-x
  9. Rehman S, Jørgensen B, Rasmussen SK, Aziz E, Akhtar W, Mahmood T (2018). Expression analysis of Proteinase Inhibitor-II under OsRGLP2 promoter in response to wounding and signaling molecules in transgenic Nicotiana bethamiana. 3 Biotech 8:51
  10. Rehman S, Aziz E, Akhtar W, ilyas M, Mahmood T (2017). Structural and functional characteristics of plant proteinase inhibitor-II (PI-II) family. Biotechnology letters. 39(5):647-666, DOI 10.1007/s10529-017-2298-1
  11. Rehman S, Jørgensen B, Rasmussen SK, Mahmood T (2017). Characterization of Proteinase inhibitor-II gene under OsRGLP2 promoter for salt stress in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana. Turkish Journal of Biology 41:494-502.
  12. Aziz E, Akhtar W, Ilyas M, Rehman S, Koiwa H, Shinwari ZK, Mahmood T (2017). Response of Tobacco Polyphenol Oxidase Gene to Wounding, Abscisic Acid (ABA) and Methyl Jasmonate (MeJ). Pakistan Journal of Botany. 49(2):499-502
  13. Rehman S, Mahmood T (2015) Functional role of DREB and ERF transcription factors: regulating stress responsive network in plants. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum (2015) 37:178.
  14. Rehman S, Chaudhary HJ, Rasheed A, Mahmood T (2015). Phylogenetic relationship of selected Pakistani wheat varieties based on a chloroplast rps11 gene. Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences 25(2): 442-447
  15. Mahmood T, Aslam R, Rehman S, Naqvi SMS (2013). Molecular Markers Assisted Genetic Characterization of Different Salt Tolerant Plant Species. Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences. 23(5): 1441-1447

Conference Papers / Presentations:

  1. Shazia Rehman, Bodil Jørgensen, Søren K. Rasmussen, and Tariq Mahmood (2017). Expression analysis of Proteinase inhibitor-II under OsRGLP2 promoter in response to wounding and signaling molecules in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana, in International Conference on Emerging Trends in Plant Proteomics, 2017 (2-4th October) at Quaid-i-azam University Islamabad, Pakistan.
  2. Shazia Rehman, Bodil Jørgensen, Tariq Mahmood and Søren K. Rasmussen (2016) Salt tolerance in Nicotiana benthamiana by overexpressing Proteinase inhibitor-II gene, in Plant Biotech Denmark Annual meeting, 2016 (2-3 February) at the university of Copenhagen, Denmark.
  3. Wasim Akhtar, Muhammad Ilyas, Awais Rasheed, Shazia Rehman, Tariq Mahmood (2013) Genetic Characterization of different Pakistani date palm varieties, in 11th Biennial Conference on “Molecular Biosciences-Challenges and Opportunities (25th November, 2013) at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Research Projects:

Assessment of genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship in Brinjal germplasm based on a chloroplast gene (HEC Startup Research Grant for fresh Phd’s).

Others:

ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1435-6166
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Uo68mIkAAAAJ