Satyabrata Sarkar,, is a scientist, investigating physiological phenomena in plants and then studying the structure and function of plant-pathogenic viruses in the Max-Planck-Institute for Biology in Tübingen and at the University of Hohenheim in Germany. Later on he was teaching Bengali language and literature in the Department of Indology of the University of Tübingen.
Education and career
Sarkar passed his Matriculation from the Uttarpara Government High School, studied at Ripon College, Presidency College Calcutta and at the University of Calcutta. He worked on tissue culture of plants and the application of radioisotopes in biological research at the Bose Institute, Calcutta. From 1954 he was engaged in research at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen and obtained his Doctorate from the University of Tübingen. From 1959 he started with intensive studies on the structure and function of plant viruses and obtained his "Habilitation" from the University of Tübingen in 1969. After Habilitation he gave lessons in Virology and Genetics as an associate professor at the same university. From 1977 to 1995 he was engaged in teaching and research at the University of Hohenheim near Stuttgart. After retirement he started teaching Bengali at the University of Tübingen. Sarkar was trained in the use of isotopes in Biology at the Nuclear Research Center in Karlsruhe, in studies on Genetics of Bacteriophages in the Department of Genetics, University of Cologne and in the structure of ribosomes at an EMBO workshop held in the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular genetics in Berlin.
Scientific achievements
His studies on the physiological background of the mechanism of flowering of higher plants revealed some interaction between the role of vernalisation and the direct effect of the plant hormone Gibberellic acid. He used, among others, two lines of Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant, that has proved to be of great significance in modern Molecular Biology of plants. Working with the components of mutants of the tobacco mosaic virus he analysed the behaviour of their coat proteins. These findings were the first experimental proof of the "trimer" character of this virus protein. From a mutant of TMV with a defective coat protein he isolated a rare mutant, which had no coat protein but only the free nucleic acid.. The presence of this free RNA prevented the spread of other related TMV mutants, offering an early experimental proof of the phenomenon, later known as "Gene Silencing". Cellwall-free protoplasts of plant cells were infected with viruses or with their RNA with a high efficiency and used for physiological investigations. Synergism between potao virus x and potato virus y was studied in vivo by classical methods as well as by ultrastructural, i.e. electronmicroscopic techniques.
*Dutt, M., Sarkar, S. & Dutta, C.T.: Physiological studies on diploid and polyploid varieties of banana. Science and Culture 16, 215,1950
*Sarkar, S.: Versuche zur Physiologie der Vernalisation. Biol. Zentralblatt 77, 1–49,1958
*Sarkar, S.: Interaction and mixed aggregation of proteins from tobacco mosaic virus strains. Zeitschr. Naturforschung. 15b,778–786, 1960
*Sarkar, S.: Relative infectivity of tobacco mosaic virus and its nucleic acid. Virology 20,185–193,1963
*Sarkar, S.: Assay of infectivity of nucleic acids. In METHODS IN VIROLOGY Vol. 2, 607–644, Academic Press, New York, 1967
*Sarkar, S. & Schilde-Rentschler, L.: Interaction of TMV proteins during electrophoretic separation in polyacrylamide gels. Molec. Gen. Genetics 103, 244–247, 1968
*Sarkar, S.: Use of protoplasts for plant virus studies. In METHODS IN VIROLOGY Vol.6, 435–456, Academic Press, New York, 1977
*Sarkar, S.& Smitamana, P.: A truly coat-protein-free mutant of tobacco mosaic virus. Naturwissenschaften 68, 145–147, 1981
*Sarkar, S. & Smitamana, P.: A proteinless mutant of tobacco mosaic virus: Evidence against the role of a viral coat protein for interference. Molec. Gen. Genetics 184, 158–159, 1981
*Blessing, J. & Sarkar, S.: Isolierung und morphologische Charakterisierung des Kartoffelblattrollvirus. Zeirschr. Naturforschung 36c,884–887, 1981
*Mayee, C.D. & Sarkar, S.: The ultrastructure of Nicotiana tabacum cells infected with potato virus X and potato virus Y. Jour. Ultrastructure Res. 81, 124–131, 1982
*Sarkar, S.: A simple cage for a controlled transmission of plant viruses by aphids. Zeitschr. Pfl.-Krankh. U. Pfl.-schutz 89,612–615,1982
*Sarkar, S.: Tobacco mosaic virus: Mutants and strains. In THE PLANT VIRUSES Vol.2, 59–77, Plenum Publ. Corp., New York & London, 1986
*Gerber, M. & Sarkar, S.: The coat protein of tobacco mosaic virus does not play a significant role for cross-protection. Jour. Phytopathol. 124, 323–331, 1989
*Osbourn, J.K., Sarkar, S. & Wilson, T.M.A.: Complementation of coat protein-defective mutants in transgenic tobacco plants expressing TMV coat protein. Virology 179, 921–925, 1990
Books
*Satyabrata Sarkar: Ich lerne Bengalisch, Teil 1. Verlag Grauer; Beuren, Stuttgart, 2002. ; Teil 2. Ibid.
*Satyabrata Sarkar: German Prabesika. Ananda Publishers Private Ltd., Calcutta, 2011.
*Sarkar, S.:. Die Sonne des Tages. Poems of Rabindranath Tagore. About one hundred poems translated from Bengali to German. Knirsch-Verlag Kirchentellinsfurt, Germany. 2012.
