Rate My Professor Sambasivam Periyannan

Periyannan's research centers on plant molecular genetics and pathology, with particular emphasis on disease resistance mechanisms in cereal crops like wheat and fibre crops. His groundbreaking work includes the identification of the Sr33 gene, an ortholog of barley Mla genes that encodes resistance to wheat stem rust race Ug99 (Science, 2013). He contributed to the development of rapid cloning techniques for disease-resistance genes in plants using mutagenesis and sequence capture (Nature Biotechnology, 2016) and characterized a recently evolved hexose transporter variant that confers resistance to multiple pathogens in wheat (Nature Genetics, 2015). Additional key publications feature the wheat Sr50 gene revealing rich diversity at a cereal disease resistance locus (Nature Plants, 2015), a five-transgene cassette for broad-spectrum rust resistance (Nature Biotechnology, 2021), and an overview of genetic rust resistance from broad to specific mechanisms (PLoS Pathogens, 2017). These contributions have advanced the field of crop improvement through molecular breeding for durable resistance. His research interests encompass crop genetics, breeding, plant disease, biotechnology, and molecular biology, with supervision in agricultural biotechnology, crop and pasture protection, and transgenesis.

Periyannan serves in prominent editorial capacities as Senior Editor for Plant Disease and Associate Editor for BMC Biology and Frontiers in Plant Science. He is honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK), Board Member of the European and Mediterranean Cereal Rusts Foundation, and Life Member of the International Society for Plant Pathology.