Dr. Parvathi M Sreekumar

Dr. Parvathi M Sreekumar completed her B.Sc (Ag.) from CoA, Vellayani and M.Sc (Ag.) and Ph.D. in Crop Physiology from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UASB).  She was third rank holder for her undergraduate degree programme from CoA, Vellayani under KAU, Thrissur and University Gold Medal holder for her post graduate degree programme from UASB. She was the recipient of ICAR JRF for her M.Sc. programme and UGC JRF for her Ph.D. at UASB.

She was awarded the NAMASTE India-European Union Mobility scholarship to carry out part of her doctoral research at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands for six months (2014-15) under the supervision of Dr. Luit J De Kok. She was also awarded the Carl Storm International Diversity Award to attend the prestigious Gordon Research Conference at Switzerland in May 2016. She is the recipient of B4 (Boston- Bangalore Biosciences Beginnings) Science and Technology Fellowship from the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India to undertake postdoctoral studies at Harvard University, Boston under the supervision of Prof. Philippe Cluzel.

After her postdoctoral stint in Harvard, she returned to India and joined KAU as Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Physiology, CoA Vellanikkara in March 2019. She has about two years of postdoctoral experience in India and abroad and about three years of teaching experience during her academic career, before she joined KAU.

Her main research focus is on Plant Abiotic Stress Physiology, Nutriophysiology and Plant Neurobiology.  She also serves as the Associate Editor and Reviewer for Plant Physiology Reports; Plant Biotechnology Journal; Plant Cell Reports; and Review Editor for Frontiers in Plant Science.

Detailed list of Scholarships/fellowships and honors

Awarded the ‘M. Sulaiman Memorial Award’ for securing third rank for B.Sc. (Ag.), instituted by the National Institute for Personnel Management

Awarded ICAR JRF (all India Rank 8) for M.Sc. education for the period 2008- 2010

Qualified in Jawaharlal Nehru University Combined Entrance Examination 2008- 2009 for securing JNU Junior Research Fellowship (All India Rank 1)for M.Sc. education

Awarded the ‘University Gold Medal’ as well as ‘Prof. Krishna Sastry Memorial Gold Medal’ for excellence in M.Sc. education at UAS Bengaluru

Received the ITS-Travel Grant from Department of Science and Technology, India (availed) to attend InterDrought IV Conference held at Crown Perth, Western Australia from 2-6 September, 2013

Awarded the NAMASTE Consortium Grant under the NAMASTE India-EU Mobility Project to undertake short term research activity at the Laboratory of Plant Physiology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands during 2014-2015 under the supervision of Dr. Luit J de Kok.

Received the GRC Carl Storm International Diversity (CSID) Award of $1250 to cover registration to attend the Gordon Research Conference on Salt and Water Stress in Plants held from 29 May–3 June 2016 at Les Diablerets, Switzerland

Recipient of the B4 (Bangalore Boston Biosciences Beginnings) Fellowship for one–year post-doctoral experience at the Harvard University during 2016-17 under the mentorship of Prof. Philippe Cluzel at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB)

Professional experience

Senior Research Fellow in the project entitled “Establishment of DBT-UAS Biotech Hub at University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore” funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi. Period: 1 September 2015 to 30 November 2015

Junior Research Fellow in the project entitled “Phenomics and Genomics of Ragi” funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, New Delhi under AICRP-Small Millets, GKVK, Bengaluru. Period: 1 December 2015 to 31 March 2016

Research Associate in the project entitled “Multiplication and field evaluation of transgenic mulberry for abiotic stress tolerance and suitability for silkworm rearing” funded by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, operated at UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru. Period: 1 April 2016 to 30 Nov 2016.

B4 Post Doctoral Fellow at the Cluzel Lab, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, US. Period: 7 December 2016 to 28 November 2017.

Assistant Professor (on contract) in the Department of Plant Physiology, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. Period: 30 July 2018 to 10 March 2019

Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Physiology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. Period: 11 March 2019 till date

Publications

Research papers

Sandra Santhosh, Anupama, T.V., Sreelatha, U., Mini Sankar and Parvathi, M. S. 2023. Impact  of  plant  growth  regulators  and  pruning  on  flowering  in Jasmine (Jasminum sambac L.). Journal of Tropical Agriculture 61(1): 117-122.

Jeevan U, Sreelatha U, Narayanankutty C, Parvathi MS, Anupama TV, 2021, Grafting as a promising technique for popularizing marigold cultivation in bacterial wilt sick soils in humid tropics of Kerala, India. Current Science 120 (9), 1517.

Bangi S, Parvathi MS, Nataraja KN, 2020, Development and standardization of a robust protocol to screen for cellular tolerance contributing for abiotic stress tolerance in rice. Mysore Journal of Agricultural Sciences 54 (1), 33-40

Jeevan U, Sreelatha U, Kurian PS, Anupama TV and Parvathi MS, 2019, Assessment of resistance against bacterial wilt in marigold genotypes under humid tropics, Journal of Tropical Agriculture, 57(2), 152-159.

Parvathi MS, Nataraja KN, Naika MBN, Reddy YAN, Gowda MVC, 2019, Transcriptome analysis of finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) reveal drought responsive genes. Journal of Genetics 98:46

Parvathi MS and Nataraja KN, 2017, Discovery of stress responsive TATA-box Binding Protein Associated Factor6 (TAF6) from finger millet (Eleusine coracana Gaertn (L.)). J Plant Biol. 60(4): 335-342.

Pruthvi V, Rama N, Parvathi MS and Nataraja KN, 2017, Transgenic tobacco plants constitutively expressing peanut BTF3 exhibit increased growth and tolerance to abiotic stresses. Plant Biol. doi:10.1111/plb.12533

Nagarjuna KN, Parvathi MS, Sajeevan RS, Pruthvi V, Mamrutha HM, Nataraja KN, 2016, Full-length cloning and characterization of abiotic stress responsive CIPK31-like gene from drought tolerant crop, finger millet. Current Science, 111(5): 890-894.

Pavithra GJ, Mahesh S, Parvathi MS, Basavarajeshwari RM, Nataraja KN and Shankar AG, 2016, Comparative growth responses and transcript profiling of zinc transporters in two tomato varieties under different zinc treatments. Ind. J Plant Physiol.21: 208.

Parvathi MS, Sreevathsa R, Rama N and Nataraja KN, 2015, Simultaneous expression of AhBTF3, AhNF-YA7 and EcZF modulates acclimation responses to abiotic stresses in rice (Oryza sativa L). Procedia Environmental Sciences, 29:236 – 237.

Parvathi MS, Nataraja KN, Yashoda BK, Ramegowda HV, Mamrutha HM and Rama N, 2013, Expression analysis of stress responsive pathway genes linked to drought hardiness in an adapted crop, finger millet (Eleusine coracana), J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol. 22 (3): 193-201.

Mahesh S, Pavithra GJ, Parvathi MS, Rajashekara Reddy and Shankar AG, 2015, Effect of processing on phytic acid content and nutrient availability in food grains. International Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 5 (5), pp. 771-777.

Reviews

Parvathi, MS, Antony, PD and Kutty, MS, 2022, Multiple stressors in vegetable production: insights for trait-based crop improvement in cucurbits. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, p.861637.

Sajeevan RS, Parvathi MS and Nataraja KN, 2017, Leaf wax trait in crops for drought and biotic stress tolerance: regulators of epicuticular wax synthesis and role of small RNAs. Ind J Plant Physiol. 22. 10.1007/s40502-017-0333-9.

Parvathi MS and Nataraja KN, 2016, Emerging tools, concepts and ideas to track the modulator genes underlying plant drought adaptive traits: An overview. Plant Signal. Behav. 11:1, e1074370.

Book chapters

Anubharathi, K., Sharmila, S., Parvathi, M. S. and Krishna G. K. 2023. Accomplishments and Research Gaps in Rice Tissue Culture. In. Agriculture and Sustainable Food Production: From Climate Resilience to Circular Bio-Economy. P Sivakumar, GG Kavitha Shree, V Karunakaran, K Sivagamy, A Velayutham (Eds.). Elite Publishing House, New Delhi, India. Pp. 214-239.

Sreepriya, S., Girija, T. and Parvathi, M.S. 2021. Geomagnetic Responses in Plants. In: Plant Growth Responses for Smart Agriculture. Girija T, Nandini K and Parvathi MS (Eds.) CRC Press pp. 34-42.

Girija, T., and M. S. Parvathi. 202) Phenotypic plasticity concepts and recent advances.In: Plant Growth Responses for Smart Agriculture. Girija T, Nandini K and Parvathi MS (Eds.) CRC Press pp. 1-10.

MS Parvathi, KH Dhanyalakshmi, KN Nataraja. 2020. Molecular mechanisms associated with drought and heat tolerance in plants and options for crop improvement for combined stress tolerance. In: Agronomic Crops: Volume 3: Stress Responses and Tolerance. Springer Singapore pp. 481-502.

KS Karthika, I Rashmi, MS Parvathi. 2018. Biological functions, uptake and transport of essential nutrients in relation to plant growth. In: Plant nutrients and abiotic stress tolerance. Springer Singapore pp. 1-49.

Karaba N. Nataraja, Madhura Bhat G., and Parvathi MS, 2017, Omics: Modern tools for precise understanding of drought adaptation in plants. In: Plant OMICS and Crop Breeding., AAP Inc., Canada and Taylor and Francis. Sajad Majeed Zargar, Vandna Rai. (Eds.)

Parvathi MS and Karaba N Nataraja, 2017, Simultaneous expression of stress regulatory genes for abiotic stress tolerance. In: Plant Tolerance to Individual and Concurrent Stresses, Springer. Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa (Ed.)

Karaba N Nataraja and Parvathi MS, 2016, Tolerance to drought stress in plants: Unravelling the signaling networks. In: Drought Stress Tolerance in Plants, Vol 2 - Molecular and Genetic Perspectives, Springer. Hossain MA, Wani SH, Bhattachajee S, Burritt DJ, Tran L-SP. (Eds.)

Membership in Scientific Bodies

Life member of Indian Society for Plant Physiology, Delhi

Links to Academic Profiles

ORCiD                        https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7323-1198

Google scholar            https://g.co/kgs/i7MzyoE

ResearchGate              https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Parvathi-Sreekumar-2