Sivakumar Sukumaran

Research Assistant Professor- Quantitative/Population Genetics
Plant and Environmental Sciences Department

Office: Biosystems Research Complex 100C
Phone: 864-656-9959

Email: ssukuma@clemson.edu
Vita: Download CV
Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/view/sivakumar-sukumaran

Educational Background

Ph.D. Agronomy (Plant Breeding and Genetics)
Kansas State University 2012

M.S. Plant Breeding and Genetics
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University 2006

B.S. Agriculture
Kerala Agricultural University 2002

Courses Taught

Guest lectures on Plant Breeding and Genetics

Profile

Dr. Sivakumar Sukumaran is a Research Assistant Professor specializing in Quantitative and Population Genetics at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences and the Advanced Plant Technology Program, Clemson University, South Carolina, USA (2024–present). Prior to joining Clemson, he served as a Research Fellow (2022–2024) at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), The University of Queensland, Australia, where he focused on sorghum genetics and genomics for plant network biology.

From 2018 to 2021, Dr. Sukumaran was a Scientist and Lead at the Global Wheat Program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico. He led spring wheat physiological pre-breeding and genetics programs targeting yield potential, drought tolerance, and heat stress resilience, and developed over 300 pre-bred spring wheat lines distributed to more than 100 countries for diverse environments.

He previously worked as an Associate Scientist (2015–2018) and a Post-Doctoral Fellow (2013–2014) at CIMMYT, focusing on wheat pre-breeding, genetic analysis, and adaptation studies. Dr. Sukumaran has a strong record of applied research and breeding across sorghum, spring wheat, durum wheat, synthetic wheat, and vegetable crops. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 7 book chapters.

Honors and Awards
2021 Editor’s Citation for Excellence, Outstanding Service as Associate Editor, Crop
Science
2018 Early Career Scientist Award from Association of Agricultural Scientists of Indian
Origin (AASIO).

Editorial roles
Associate Editor: Crop Science
Editorial Advisor: Plants, People, Planet

Research Interests

At Clemson University, his current research focuses on leveraging genetic diversity and advanced genetic approaches to unravel the genetic basis of complex traits, aiming to enhance crop improvement across multiple species.

Publications

Selected 10 publications (For full list see google scholar)

He, F., Wang, W., Rutter, W.B., Jordan, K.W., Ren, J., Taagen, E., DeWitt, N., Sehgal, D., Sukumaran, S., Dreisigacker, S. and Reynolds, M., 2022. Genomic variants affecting homoeologous gene expression dosage contribute to agronomic trait variation in allopolyploid wheat. Nature communications, 13(1), pp.1-15.

Hu, P., Chapman, S.C., Sukumaran, S., Reynolds, M. and Zheng, B., 2022. Phenological optimization of late reproductive phase for raising wheat yield potential in irrigated mega-environments. Journal of Experimental Botany. Volume 73, Issue 12, 24 June 2022, Pages 4236–4249

Sukumaran, S., H. Krishna, K. Singh, Mottaleb, K., M. Reynolds. 2021. Progress and prospects for developing climate resilient wheat in South Asia using modern pre-breeding methods. Current Genomics, special issue: Genes, Genomics and Germplasm for Climate-Smart Agriculture.

Li, X., T. Guo, J. Wang, W. Bekele, S. Sukumaran, A. E. Vanous, J. P. McNellie, L. Cortes, M. Lopes, K. Lamkey, M. Westgate, J. McKay, S. Archontoulis, M. Reynolds, N. Tinker, P. Schnable, J. Yu. 2021. An integrated framework reinstating the environmental dimension for GWAS and genomic selection in crops. Molecular Plant, 14(6), pp.874-887. Cell press

Reynolds, M., S. Chapman, G. Molero, S. Mondal, F. Pinto, F. Pinera-Chavez, J. Poland, C. Rivera-Amado, C. Saint-Pierre, S. Sukumaran, DNL Pequeno, L Crespo. 2020. Breeder friendly phenotyping. Plant Science, p.110396

Liu, C., S. Sukumaran*, E. Claverie, C. Sansaloni, S. Dreisigacker, M. Reynolds. 2019. Genetic dissection of heat and drought stress QTLs in a phenology controlled synthetic derived recombinant inbred lines in spring wheat. Molecular Breeding, 39(34)

Sukumaran, S., D. Jarquin, J. Crossa, M. Reynolds. 2018. Genomic enabled prediction accuracies increased by incorporating genotype by environment interaction in durum wheat. The Plant Genome, July:11(2)

Sukumaran, S*., C. Sansaloni, M. Reynolds. 2018. Genome-wide association analyses identify QTL hotspots for yield and component traits in durum wheat grown under yield potential, drought, and heat stress environments. Frontiers in Plant Science, 9, 81.

Reynolds, M., A. Pask, W. Hoppitt, K. Sonder, S. Sukumaran, et al. 2017. Strategic crossing of biomass and harvest index—source and sink—achieves genetic gains in wheat. Euphytica, 214 (1).

Sukumaran, S*., M. Lopes, S. Dreisigacker, P. Chavez, M. Reynolds. 2015. Genome-wide association study for yield and related traits in an elite spring wheat population grown at temperate irrigated environments. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 128 (2), 353-363.

Links