Nancy Choudhary

n.choudhary[a]uni-bonn.de

ORCID (0000-0002-2562-7905)

nancychoudhary18

GitHub

Google scholar profile

+49 228 735507

Kirschallee1, 53115, Bonn, Germany
Room 2.044

I am working on elucidating the biochemical pathways of Withanolide biosynthesis in Nightshade plants. Thereafter, I am particularly interested in studying the evolution of the withanolide biosynthesis genes and their structural diversification. For this, I use long-read sequencing to generate genome sequences. BLAST, synteny analysis, co-expression anlaysis and phylogenetic analysis among others are used to detect gene candidates. 'Data reuse' using publically available genomic and transcriptomie sequences and 'public sharing' is a big component of my work principles.

• April 2025 - Present: PhD student (continued), University of Bonn
• Sept 2023 - March 2025: PhD student, TU Braunschweig
• Aug 2021 - June 2023: M.Tech in Biotechnology, IIT Mandi, India
• Aug 2017 - June 2021: B.Tech in Biotechnology, Kurukshetra University, India

• Hakim S.E.*, Choudhary N.*, Malhotra K.*, Peng J.*, Arafa A., Bültemeier A., Friedhoff R., Bauer M., Witte C.-P., Herde M., Heretsch P., Pucker B., Franke J. Phylogenomics and metabolic engineering reveal a conserved gene cluster in Solanaceae plants for withanolide biosynthesis. Nat Commun 16, 6367 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61686-1
  
  
• Karbstein K., Choudhary N., Xie T., Tomasello S., Wagner N. D., Barke B. H., Paetzold C., Bradican J. P., Preick M., Himmelbach A., Stein N., Papantonis A., Irisarri I., De Vries J., Pucker B., & Hörandl E. (2024). Efficient assembly of plant genomes: A case study with evolutionary implications in Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae). bioRxiv . doi: doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.08.552429
  
  
• Recinos M. F. M., Winnier S., Lagerhausen K., Ajayi B., Wolff K., Friedhoff R., Dassow C. M., Choudhary N., & Pucker B. (2024). Cacao genome sequence reveals insights into the flavonoid biosynthesis. bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory). doi: doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.23.624982
  
  
• Choudhary N, Pucker B (2024) Conserved amino acid residues and gene expression patterns associated with the substrate preferences of the competing enzymes FLS and DFR. PLOS ONE 19(8): e0305837. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305837.
  
  
• Rempel A., Choudhary N. and Pucker B. (2023). KIPEs3: Automatic annotation of biosynthesis pathways. PLOS ONE 18(11): e0294342. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294342.

• DAAD-Kospie scholarship (Sept 2022 - March 2023)
• HTRA schlolarship (Aug 2021 - June 2023)

Attended the Plant Science Student Conference (PSSC) 2025 at IPK, Gatersleben from 30th June  to 2nd July 2025. Gave a talk about the withanolides work.

Attended Botanik-Tagung: the International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences 2024 in Halle from September 15th to 19th, 2024. Showcased the discovery of a biosynthetic gene cluster for withanolide biosyntheis through a poster.

Attended the Molecular Biology of plants (MBP2024) conference in Hennef, Germany, from March 4th to 7th, 2024. Presented my master's research through a poster