Sajeevan Radha Sivarajan

With academic and professional backgrounds spanning India, Switzerland, and Sweden, I bring over 15 years of experience in plant biotechnology and stress physiology. At SLU, my work bridges molecular biology, omics technologies, and crop physiology to tackle challenges in climate-resilient agriculture. My research projects cover oats and potato adaptation to Nordic conditions, as well as moringa-based sustainability initiatives in East and South Africa, integrating fundamental discoveries with practical solutions.

Alongside applied research, I remain strongly motivated by curiosity-driven questions that push the boundaries of plant biology and open new avenues for discovery.

A central focus of my career is building international collaborations across Europe and Africa and working closely with industry partners to ensure research translates into real-world practice. By developing early disease detection tools and examining the effects of biostimulant-derived compounds on crop growth and stress resistance, I aspire to advance scientific innovation and achieve greater societal impact.

My research seeks to unravel the molecular and physiological mechanisms governing crop adaptation to drought, heat, and disease. I employ multi-omics approaches (genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics) combined with advanced phenotyping and bioinformatics to identify key regulators of stress tolerance.

Current themes include:

Abiotic stress resilience in oats and potato – dissecting molecular responses to combined drought and heat stress.
Disease resistance in potato – identifying genetic regulators of early blight and applying omics for improved detection.
Biostimulants and underutilized crops – exploring the role of natural compounds from Moringa and other species in enhancing stress tolerance and sustainable farming.
Technology-driven agriculture – imaging, remote sensing, and machine learning for crop health monitoring.

Current Projects:

1. Molecular biology and applied bioinformatics for analysis of new resistance and susceptibility sources against potato early blight. (SLU Grogrund: 2020 - 2025).

2. Whole-genome sequence and metabolome profiling of a hyper-virulent Swedish Alternaria solani isolate. (Martha and Dagny Larsson's fund)

3. Identifying key genes and regulators of early blight disease resistance in potato (The Royal Physiographic Society: 2022 - 2025).

4. Molecular basis for climate-resilient oats, especially in relation to early summer drought stress. (FORMAS - Early-career researchers: 2022 - 2026).

5. Molecular dissection of pathways regulating plant responses to a combination of drought and heat stress. (Carl Trygger's Foundation: 2023 - 2025).

6. UPSCALE: Upscaling crop performance monitoring by linking satellite and field biosignatures. (NordForsk - Nordic Council of Ministers: 2023 - 2026).

Participating Projects:

1. Robustness of Oats for the Nordic Region (RobOat). (Nordic Public-Private Partnership (PPP): 2024 - 2026).

2. Increasing Sustainability of Agribiologicals by Living Labs in sub-Saharan Africa (inSALSA). EU-Biodiversa+: (2025 - 2027).

Completed Projects:

1. Understanding the environmental stress conditions affecting oat seeds viability and vigor – a pilot study. (Lantmännen Research Foundation: 2023 - 2024).

2. Short video - Promoting moringa platform initiatives and advocating for underutilized crop research. (SIANI–SLU Global - 2024).

3. Moringa platform development: Identifying knowledge gaps for sustainability and livelihood improvement in East and South Africa. 2023 - 2025.

4. Dissecting the molecular responses of oats to single and combined drought and heat stresses. (Crafoord Foundation: 2023 - 2025).

I teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, providing pedagogical guidance, supervision, and examination across degree programs. I train students pursuing MSc and PhD degrees in Plant Science, with a particular emphasis on plant stress physiology and crop improvement.

Current Teaching:

1. BI1296: MSc course Plant Biology for Breeding and Protection (Course Leader and Examiner).

2. PLG0049: How to write and publish a scientific paper.

3. BI1367: Plant Breeding and Plant Physiology

Supervision 

Postdocs:

Maria Vera Jesus Da Costa (2023 - till date)

Master's thesis project:

1. Evaluation of transgenic mulberry expressing the transcription activator AtSHN1 for abiotic stress tolerance.

2. Validation of identified genes for water stress in rice (Oryza sativa L.) mediated by Pseudomonas fluorescens. 

3. Screening methods for early blight in potato cultivars with varying levels of susceptibility to Alternaria solani. (Ingi Abdelmeguid: Co-Supervisor, 2020)

4. The use of plant resistance inducers (PRIs) in tomato cultivation and control of Alternaria solani. (Rizwan Maqbool Choudhry: Co-Supervisor, 2022)

5. Understanding the role of WRKY transcription factors in early blight disease of potato caused by Alternaria solani. (Sujan Gautam: Supervisor, 2023) 

6. Exploring the effect of pulsed electric field on the growth and stress tolerance of oat plants. (Alia Hussain Al-Khafaji: Supervisor, 2023) 

7. Evaluation of the growth and development of 10 field-grown potato cultivars under drought stress in South Africa. (Bianca Smuts: Co-Supervisor, 2024) 

8. Moringa leaf extracts as plant biostimulants in Africa and beyond. (Silvia Faravelli: Co-Supervisor, 2024) 

9. Investigating drought tolerance in potato and tomato cultivars and assessing the impact of Moringa leaf extract in abating the effects of drought stress. (Gracious Chisenga: Supervisor, Ongoing)

10. Unraveling Gene Expression Dynamics in Oats Under Drought and Heat Stress: Functional Insights to AP2/ERF Family. (Manoja Ama Samadhi Abeyrathna: Supervisor, 2025)

11. Metabolomic Insights into the Susceptibility of Potato (Solanum tuberosum) to Early Blight (Alternaria solani). (Sanjeevi Kumar Thangaraju: Supervisor (SLU), 2025)

Bachelor's thesis project:

1. In silico analysis for identification of master transcription factor for multiple abiotic stresses in Arabidopsis thaliana.

2. Functional annotation of multiple stress-responsive hypothetical proteins from Oryza sativa and approaches to annotate DUF1645.

Short-term internship - Two to Six months:

Trained more than 10 students.

PhD in Applied Botany (2016)
Kuvempu University/University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK), India
Thesis: Overexpression of transcription factors associated with drought and epicuticular wax biosynthesis in mulberry (Morus alba L.)

MSc in Biotechnology (2005)
University of Kerala, India
Thesis: Identification of DNA markers linked to abnormal leaf fall disease in rubber (Hevea brasiliensis)

BSc in Biotechnology (2003)
University of Kerala, India
Thesis: Micropropagation of Musa accuminata colla.