| Postdoctoral Research Associate Molecular Genetics and Genomics B.S., Agriculture, University of Agricultural Science, Bangalore, India, 2000 M.S., Plant Soil and Environmental Sciences, West Texas A&M University, 2006 Ph.D., Agronomy, Texas A&M University, 2011 |
6500 Amarillo Blvd W
Amarillo, TX 79106
(806)677-5600
(806)677-5644
Email Srirama
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Professional Experience
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Wheat Improvement and Genetic, Texas AgriLife Research, Amarillo, TX (June 2011 – Present)
Mentors: Drs. Shuyu Liu and Jackie Rudd
- Research Assistant, Plant Development Laboratory, Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences, TAMU, College Station, TX (September 2006 – May 2011)
Mentor: Dr. Scott Finlayson
- Research Assistant, Dryland Agriculture Institute, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, WTAMU, Canyon, TX (June 2004 – August 2006)
Mentor: Dr. B.A. Stewart
- Consultant, Agriculture and Watershed Specialist, RORES Non-Governmental Organization, Kolar, India (June’01 – May’03)
Research Goals and Interests
Plan and conduct research with the primary objective of increasing the knowledge base for stress tolerance and improved productivity in the High Plains crops with emphasis on wheat and other monocots. Specifically, my research interests are to study the plant-environment, plant-pathogen/pest, and plant-plant interactions using physiological and molecular approaches to address fundamental questions in plant development, biotic and abiotic stress responses.
Current Projects
- Discover wheat drought tolerance mechanism in leading TAM cultivars using a multi ‘omics’ driven systems biology approach.
- Investigate the Gb-3 mediated molecular mechanisms of host plant resistance to greenbug infestation in the hard red winter wheat cultivars using microarray.
- Explore the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying wheat streak mosaic virus infestation in relation to yield and water use efficiency.
- Do we know enough about our wheat cultivars? – A project investigating several varietal characteristics addressing fundamental questions in wheat germination and early plant development in response to environmental cues and cultural practices.
Approaches
To investigate above mentioned research problems we use field, greenhouse, controlled environment, and laboratory studies using established molecular and physiological techniques, gene/QTL mapping, expression studies, and functional genomics. In the process, we anticipate to identify novel genes and other key molecular signals regulating physiological and molecular processes related to biotic and abiotic stress adaptions.
