Sruthi Narayanan

Associate Professor of Crop Ecophysiology
Plant and Environmental Sciences Department

Office: 212 Biosystems Research Complex
Phone: 864-656-2419

Email: SKUTTY@clemson.edu
Personal Website: https://cropecophysiologylab.myportfolio.com

Educational Background

Ph.D. Agronomy
Kansas State University 2015

M.S. Agronomy
Kansas State University 2011

B.S. Agriculture
Kerala Agricultural University 2007

Courses Taught

PES 4210/6210 Principles of Field Crop Production (Fall, odd years)
PES 4220/6220 Major World Crops (Spring, even years)
PES 3350 Agricultural Biotechnology (Fall, even years)
PES 8010 Crop Physiology and Nutrition (Spring, odd years)
PES 3500 Practicum (Fall, every year)
PES 4960 (Section 002) Creative Inquiry in Crop Science (Spring, every year)

Profile

Dr. Sruthi Narayanan joined the department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Clemson University with a 50% research and 50% teaching appointment in the Fall of 2015. Dr. Narayanan is at the forefront of advancements in crop physiology with cutting-edge research on abiotic stress tolerance. Her novel lipidomic approach to characterize plant heat tolerance at the cellular level is widely published and acclaimed. She brings to the department an array of expertise ranging from production agronomy to highly sophisticated omics techniques. Her research program focuses on understanding the tolerance mechanisms of crop plants to abiotic stresses, with an emphasis on drought and heat stresses, at whole-field, whole-plant, cellular, and molecular levels. She is passionate about sustainable agriculture, and has been working on improving resource use efficiencies, maximizing crop yields, and minimizing environmental risk. Growing up in a farming family, she understands the promises and perils of agriculture, which is her motivation to study the interrelationship between climate change and food security, and ways to deal with that threat. Dr. Narayanan's efforts have won her recognition at national and international levels. Besides her research program, Dr. Narayanan is involved in developing and teaching courses in Plant and Environmental Sciences for undergraduate and graduate students. She is also actively advising and mentoring graduate students.

RECENT AWARDS

1. Crop Science Society of America Crop Physiology and Metabolism Division’s Chair Elect, 2024
2. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Teaching Award of Merit, 2023
3. Kansas State University Distinguished Young Alumni Award, 2022
4. Crop Science Society of America Early Career Award, 2021
5. Association of Agricultural Scientists of Indian Origin (AASIO) Outstanding Early Career Scientist award, 2021
6. Clemson University Provost Outstanding Junior Teaching Award, 2021
7. College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences (CAFLS) Junior Teaching Award for Excellence, 2021

Research Interests

Dr. Sruthi Narayanan's crop-ecophysiological research program focuses on improving the productivity of agronomic crops through economically viable and environmentally sustainable agronomic practices. Climate variability necessitates the development of resilient, regionally adapted production systems and her group strives to achieve this by applying concepts from physiology, biochemistry, lipidomics, and genomics. Crop-ecophysiological responses from the rhizosphere to the global scale are studied using on-farm, greenhouse, growth chamber, laboratory, and modeling experiments.

Visit Dr. Narayanan's lab website (https://cropecophysiologylab.myportfolio.com) to learn more about her research program.

Lab Members

GRADUATE STUDENTS

1. Om Prakash Ghimire (Ph.D.) (https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/oghimir)
2. Malarvizhi Sathasivam (Ph.D.) (https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/msathas)
3. Luvina Madrid (Ph.D.) (https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/lmadrid)
4. Tursynbek Kaiyrbekov (Ph.D.) (https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/tkaiyrb)
5. Shelby Hammond (Masters) (https://www.clemson.edu/cafls/faculty_staff/profiles/shammo3)

POSTDOC

1. Akanksha Sehgal

Alumni
1. Ricardo St Aime (Postdoc)
2. Tahir Sheikh (Visiting Scientist)
3. Jyoti Prasad Kakati (Ph.D.)
4. Ricardo St Aime (Ph.D.)
5. Walker Spivey (Masters)
6. Enoch Noh (Masters)
7. Zolian Zoong Lwe (Masters)
8. Ricardo St Aime (Masters)
9. Harrison Fried (Masters)

Publications

Research Articles

31. Kakati J.P., Fallen B., Armstrong P., Yan S., Bridges W.C., Narayanan S. 2024. High-protein soybean lines with stable seed protein content under heat and drought stresses. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research. 18:101469.

30. Holladay S.K., Marshall M.W., Plumblee M.T., Jones M.A., Narayanan S., Inman M.D. 2024. Can cotton seed size mitigate preemergence herbicide injury? Crop, Forage, & Turfgrass Management. 10:e20286.

29. Ghimire O.P., Spivey W.W., Kuraparthy V., Campbell B.T., Jones M., Thomas J., Bridges W.C., Narayanan S.* 2024. Phenotypic variability in the U.S. upland cotton core set for root traits and water use efficiency at the late reproductive stage. Crop Science. 64:1831–1845.

28. Holladay S.K., Plumblee M.T*., Marshall M., Jones M.A., Narayanan S. 2024. Determining the Optimum Planting Date by Maturity Group Combination for Soybean Produced in South Carolina. Crop, Forage, & Turfgrass Management. 10, e20270.

27. Rustgi S*., Kakati J.P., Narayanan S. 2024. Shaping plant architecture for improved productivity: Strigolactones and beyond. Advances in Agronomy. In press.

26. Spivey W.W., Rustgi R., Welti R., Roth M.R., Burow M.D., Bridges Jr. W.C., Narayanan S*. 2023. Lipid Modulation contributes to heat stress adaptation in peanut. Frontiers in Plant Science. 14, 1299371.

25. St Aime R., Bridges W.C., Jr., Narayanan S.* 2023. Interseeded cover crops did not reduce the performance of silage corn in the sandy loam soils of South Carolina. Agrosystems Geosciences and Environment. 6:e20364.

24. St Aime R., Bridges W.C., Jr., Narayanan S.* 2023. Single- and multi-species cover crops can reduce weed presence and improve soil health without depleting soil water in the Southeastern clayey soils. Agronomy Journal. 115:242-260.

23. Kakati J.P., Fallen B., Bridges W.C., Jr., Narayanan S.* 2022. Characterization of a soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) population for germination and seedling root traits under water stress. Agronomy. 12: 1944.

22. Noh E., Fallen B., Payero J., Narayanan S.* 2022. Parsimonious root systems and better root distribution can improve biomass production and yield of soybean. PLOS ONE 17(6): e0270109.

21. Kakati J.P., Zoon Lwe Z., Narayanan S. 2022. Heat stress during the early flowering stage did not affect seed fatty acid contents in conventional oleic peanut varieties. Peanut Science 49(1):63-69.

20. St Aime R., Noh E., Bridges W.C., Jr., Narayanan S.* 2022. A comparison of drill and broadcast planting methods for biomass production of two legume cover crops. Agronomy. 12:79.

19. Rustgi S., Kakati J.P., Jones Z.T., Zoong Lwe Z., Narayanan S. 2021. Heat tolerance as a function of membrane lipid remodeling in the major US oilseed crops (soybean and peanut). Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology 30:652-667. Invited Review.

18. Zoong Lwe Z., Sah S., Persaud L., Li J., Gao W., Reddy K.R.*, Narayanan S.*. 2021. Alterations in the leaf lipidome of Brassica carinata under high temperature stress. BMC Plant Biology 21:404.

17. St Aime R., Rhodes G., Jones M., Campbell B.T., Narayanan S*. 2021. Evaluation of root traits and water use efficiency of different cotton genotypes in the presence or absence of a soil-hardpan. The Crop Journal 9:945-953.

16. Zoong Lwe, Z.S., Welti R., Naveed S., Rustgi S., Anco, D., and Narayanan, S. 2020. Heat stress elicits remodeling in the anther lipidome of peanut. Scientific Reports. 10: 22163.

15. Djanaguiraman M., Narayanan S., Erdayani E., Prasad P.V.V. 2020. Effects of high temperature stress during anthesis and grain filling periods on photosynthesis, lipids and grain yield in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). BMC Plant Biology. 20:268.

14. Narayanan, S. Zoong Lwe Z.S., Gandhi N., Welti R., Fallen B., Smith J.R., and Rustgi S. 2020. Comparative lipidomic analysis reveals heat stress responses of two soybean genotypes differing in temperature sensitivity. Plants 9(4): 457.

13. St Aime R., G. Zehnder, C. Talley, and S. Narayanan. 2020. Differences in biomass production and water use efficiency among seven different cover crops in the wet winter seasons of 2016/17 and 2018 in South Carolina. Agronomy. 10(4): 463.

12. Narayanan, S. and B. Fallen. 2019. Evaluation of soybean plant introductions for traits that can improve emergence under varied soil moisture levels. Agronomy. 9:118.

11. Fried, H., S. Narayanan, and B. Fallen. 2019. Evaluation of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genotypes for yield, water use efficiency, and root traits. PLoS ONE. 13(7): e0200463.

10. Fried, H., S. Narayanan, and B. Fallen. 2018. Characterization of a soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) germplasm collection for root traits. PLoS ONE 13(7): e0200463.

9. Narayanan, S., P.V.V. Prasad, and R. Welti. 2018. Alterations in wheat pollen lipidome during high day and night temperature stress. Plant, Cell and Environment 41:1749–1761.

8. Narayanan, S. 2018. Effects of high temperature stress and traits associated with tolerance in wheat. Open Access Journal of Science 2:177-186. Invited Review.

7. Narayanan, S., P.J. Tamura, M.R. Roth, P.V.V. Prasad, and R. Welti. 2016. Wheat leaf lipids during heat stress: I. High day and night temperatures result in major lipid alterations. Plant, Cell and Environment 39:787-803.

6. Narayanan, S., P.V.V. Prasad, and R. Welti. 2016. Wheat leaf lipids during heat stress: II. Lipids experiencing coordinated metabolism are detected by analysis of lipid co-occurrence. Plant, Cell and Environment 39:608-617.

5. Narayanan, S., P.V.V. Prasad, A.K. Fritz, D.L. Boyle, and B.S. Gill. 2014. Impact of high night-time and high daytime temperature stress on winter wheat. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 201:206-218.

4. Narayanan, S., A. Mohan, K.S. Gill, and P.V.V. Prasad. 2014. Variability of root traits in spring wheat germplasm. PLoS ONE 9(6): e100317.

3. Narayanan, S., and P.V.V. Prasad. 2014. Characterization of a spring wheat association mapping panel for root traits. Agronomy Journal 106:1593–1604.

2. Narayanan, S., R. Aiken, P.V.V. Prasad, Z. Xin, G. Paul, and J. Yu. 2014. A simple quantitative model to predict leaf area index in sorghum. Agronomy Journal 106:219-226.

1. Narayanan, S., R. Aiken, P.V.V. Prasad, Z. Xin, and J. Yu. 2013. Water and radiation use efficiencies in sorghum. Agronomy Journal 105:649-656.


Book Chapters

1. Prasad P.V.V., J.M.G. Thomas, and S. Narayanan. 2016. Plants and environment: global warming effects. In: Encyclopedia of Applied Plant Sciences. 2nd edition (Eds. B. Thomas, B.G. Murray, and D.J. Murphy). Elsevier, London, U.K. pp 289-299.

2. Narayanan, S. 2021. Membrane fluidity and compositional changes in response to high temperature stress in wheat. In: Physiological, molecular, and genetic perspectives of wheat improvement. Wani S.H., Mohan A., Singh G.P. (Eds.) Springer-Nature.

Teaching Articles

1. Narayanan S. 2024. Customizing course content to meet student needs. Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service, Land-Grant Press by Clemson Extension; LGP OTLS 1198.

Links