Sushma Naithani

Associate Professor (Sr Res)

Editor-in Chief, Current Plant Biology

4619 Cordley Hall

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology

Oregon State University

2701 SW Campus Way Corvallis, OR 97331

Office: 541-737-8022

e-mail:  sushma.naithani-at-science.oregonstate.edu

 
Area of Expertise: Systems biology, Genomics, Cell-cell signaling, Self-incompatibility, Mitochondria biogenesis, Photosynthesis, and Chloroplast biology, Plant pathway biocuration, and gene-gene network modeling

The Current Research Focus: The focus of our research is to understand the astonishing complexity and organization found within the living systems, particularly the photo-autotrophs and higher plants. We are interested in developing system-level network models for crop plants by utilizing publicly available transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and regulatory network data to understand how genetic diversity and a plant's immediate environment relate to yield, stress tolerance and quality traits. We implement a variety of approaches based on genomics and bioinformatics to dissect complex interactions between plant’s genetic, metabolic and signaling networks. The long-term goal is to develop models in a probabilistic framework that can assess impacts of abiotic stresses on the yield and quality traits of crops plants. The Naithani Lab provides training to undergraduate and graduate students to cutting-edge technologies in genome annotation, gene and pathway biocuration, gene expression, plant development and bioinformatics. We are also an affiliate of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program at OSU. We collaborate extensively with plant biologists on campus, nationally and internationally while working on multi-institutional projects such as the Gramene and several plant genome projects.

Genomic Resources and Databases:

Affiliations

  • 2017-present Editor-in-chief, Current Plant Biology
  • 2022-present      Associate Editor, Frontiers in Plant Science-Plant Biotechnology
  • 2022-present      Editorial Board Member, Plants (Basel):Plant Genetics, Genomics and Biotechnology section (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/plants)
  • 2022-present      Editorial Board Member, PeerJ Life and Environment
  • Graduate Faculty, Botany and Plant Pathology, OSU
  • Graduate Council Representative (GCR), OSU
  • Affiliate Faculty, Center for Quantitative Life Sciences (CQLS), OSU