L

Lekshmy V Sankarapillai

Mississippi State University, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

Research areas: Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Plant Science · Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance · Genetics and Plant Breeding · Rice Cultivation and Yield Improvement

ORCID iD 0009-0004-5776-3233
Follow

About

I am an early-career researcher specializing in crop physiology and abiotic stress biology, with research focused on understanding how crops regulate carbon gain, carbon use efficiency, growth, and productivity under changing environments. My work integrates physiological, phenotypic, and genetic approaches to identify stress-adaptive traits and translate mechanistic insights into strategies for climate-resilient crop improvement.

I earned my M.Sc. in Plant Physiology from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Ph.D. in Crop Physiology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, supported by the INSPIRE Fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. My doctoral research investigated acquired drought tolerance in rice using high-throughput phenotyping, physiological and biochemical characterization, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), gene-expression analysis, and metabolomics to identify and validate mechanisms associated with drought adaptation.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Associate at Mississippi State University, where my research examines crop responses to drought, heat and high nighttime temperature, waterlogging, and nutrient availability across soybean, cowpea, corn, and cotton. My current work particularly focuses on linking photosynthesis, respiration, carbon-use efficiency, stress physiology, and reproductive performance with crop productivity.

My research integrates high-throughput phenotyping, physiological measurements, proximal and spectral sensing, quantitative genetics, and statistical analysis in R across controlled-environment, greenhouse, outdoor-pot, and field experiments. My broader goal is to identify physiological and genetic traits that improve resource-use efficiency, stress resilience, and sustainable crop productivity under increasingly variable climates.

Employment

Education

Projects & Funding

  • Studying the importance of acquired tolerance traits to exploit their potential in crop improvement program Department of Science and Technology

Publications (16)