Babu Valliyodan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics
Department of Agriculture and Environmental Science
SARF 106, 1220 Chestnut Street
Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO 65101, USA
Phone: 573-681-5533 (office); 573-681-5452 (lab)
Email: valliyodanb@lincolnu.edu,
ORCID: 0000-0001-9457-9508
Education:
PhD. Plant Biology (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
MSc. Plant Biology (Genetics, Physiology, Biochemistry)
Current teaching and research duties
My research focuses on the development and deployment of genetic and genomic tools for crop resilience and sustainable agriculture. Subjects and topics related to this are part of my teaching duties. Principal research interests are:
- Molecular genetics and integrated functional genomics of plant adaptation to stress environments.
- Application of contemporary genetic and genomic technologies to study genome variation and inheritance of complex traits in legumes and other major crops.
- Investigation of the role of plant-microbiome (phytobiome/rhizobiome) interactions for water and nutrient use efficiency, plant performance and yield improvement.
- Development and application of genomics-assisted breeding strategies including genome editing for crop improvement.
Appointments/Professional Experience:
Assistant Professor: Molecular Biology and Genomics, Dept. of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, Lincoln University, 2019 Jan-present
Visiting Research Scientist (Adjunct): Functional Genomics, Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, 2019 Jan-present.
Senior Research Scientist and Faculty: Functional Genomics, Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, 2005–2018.
Post-Doctoral Research Associate: Functional Genomics, Division of Plant Sciences and National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, University of Missouri, Columbia, 2003-2005
Post-Doctoral Fellow: Molecular Biology, Department of Plant Biology, Arizona State University. 2000 – 2003
Grants Received (selected):
University of Missouri Center for Botanical Interaction Studies (National Institute of Health funding, 07/10-06/17, Role- Co-PI)
Discovery of yield genes for soybean improvement (Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council funding, 01/14-12/16, Role- Co-PI)
Genetic engineering of sterol metabolic pathway in soybean (Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council funding, 06/11-05/15, Role- Co-PI)
High throughput cloning and functional characterization of molecular switches for stress tolerance and enhanced seed composition in soybean (Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council funding, 06/12-05/15, Role- Co-PI)
Selected Publications from the last 4 years, 2016-2019 (Total 10 Book chapters and more than 70 publications in refereed Journals):
Valliyodan B*, Cannon SB*, Bayer PE*, Shu S, Ren L, Jenkins J, Chung C Y-L, Chan T-F, Daum CG, Plott C, Hastie A, Baruch K, Barry KW, Huang W, Patil G, Varshney RK, Hu H, Batley J, Yuan Y, Song Q, Stupar RM, Goodstein DM, Stacey G, Lam H-M, Jackson SA, Schmutz J, Grimwood J, Edwards D, Nguyen HT. (2019) Construction and comparison of three new reference-quality genome assemblies for soybean. The Plant Journal (Accepted).
Xie M, Chung CY-L, Li1 M-W, Wong F-L, Wang X, Liu A, Wang Z, Leung A K-Y, Wong T-H, Tong S-H, Xiao Z, Fan K, Ng M-S, Qi X, Yang L, Deng T, He L, Chen L, Fu A, Ding Q, He J, Chung G, Isobe S, Tanabata T, Valliyodan B, Nguyen HT, Cannon SB, Foyer CH, Chan T-F, Lam H-M. (2019) A reference-grade wild soybean genome. Nature Communications, 10(1):1216.
Torkamaneh D, Laroche J, Valliyodan B, et al. (2019) Soybean Haplotype Map (GmHapMap): A universal resource for soybean translational and functional genomics. bioRxiv doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/534578 s.
Do TD, Vuong TD, Dunn D, Clubb M, Valliyodan B, Patil G, Chen P, Xu D, Nguyen HT, Shannon JG. (2019) Identification of new loci for salt tolerance in soybean by high-resolution genome-wide association mapping. BMC Genomics. 20(1):318.
Patil G, Lakhssassi N, Wan J, Song L, Zhou Z, Klepadlo M, Vuong T, Stec A, Kahil S, Colantonio V, Valliyodan B, Rice H, Piya S, Hewezi T, Stupar R, Meksem K, Nguyen HT. 2019. Whole genome re-sequencing reveals the impact of the interaction of copy number variants of the rhg-1 and Rhg4 genes on broad-based resistance to soybean cyst nematode. Plant Biotech. J. (Accepted) doi: 10.1111/pbi.13086.
Song L, Chen W, Wang B, Yao QM, Valliyodan B, Bai MY, Zhao MZ, Ye H, Wang ZY, Nguyen HT. (2019) GmBZL3 acts as a major BR signaling regulator through crosstalk with multiple pathways in Glycine max. BMC Plant Biol. 19(1):8
Mousavi-Derazmahalleh M, Bayer PE, Hane JK, Valliyodan B, Nguyen HT, Nelson MN, Erskine W, Varshney RK, Papa R, Edwards D. (2019) Adapting legume crops to climate change using genomic approaches. Plant Cell Environ. 42(1):6-19.6.
Ye H, Song L, Schapaugh WT, Ali ML, Sinclair TR, Riar MK, Raymond RN, Li Y, Vuong T, Valliyodan B, Pizolato Neto A, Klepadlo M, Song Q, Shannon JG, Chen P, Nguyen HT. (2019) The importance of slow canopy wilting in drought tolerance in soybean. J Exp. Bot. (Accepted) pii: erz150.
Prince S, Kanda Das NT, Murphy M, Valliyodan B, Desouza GN, Nguyen HT. ( 2018) Prediction of soybean root response in field using non-destructive seedling three dimensional root features. Plant Phenome J. (accepted).
Prince SJ, Valliyodan B, Ye H, Yang M, Tai S, Hu W, Murphy M, Durnell LA, Song L, Joshi T, Liu Y, de Velde JV, Vandepoele K, Shannon GJ, Nguyen HT. (2018) Understanding genetic control of root system architecture in soybean: Insights into the genetic basis of lateral root number. Plant Cell and Environment 42(1):212-229.
Ye H*, Roorkiwal M*, Valliyodan B*, Zhou L, Chen P, Varshney R, Nguyen HT. (2018) Genetic regulation of root system architecture and plasticity in grain legumes. Journal of Experimental Botany 69(13):3267-3277.
Patil G, Vuong TD, Kale S, Valliyodan B, Deshmukh R, Zhu C, Wu X, Bai Y, Yungbluth D, Lu F, Kumpatla S, Shannon GJ, Varshney RK, Nguyen HT. (2018) Dissecting genomic hotspots underlying seed composition traits using skim-whole genome sequencing approach in an interspecific cross between cultivated and wild soybean. Plant Biotechnology Journal 16(11):1939-1953.
Ye H, Song L, Chen H, Valliyodan B, Cheng P, Ali L, Vuong T, Wu C, Orlowski J, Buckley B, Chen P, Shannon JG, Nguyen HT. (2018) A major natural genetic variation associated with root system architecture and plasticity improves waterlogging tolerance and yield in soybean. Plant Cell Environ. 41(9):2169-2182.
Kulkarni K, Patil G, Valliyodan B, Vuong T, Shannon GJ, Nguyen HT, Lee J-D. (2018) Comparative genome analysis to identify SNPs associated with high oleic acid and elevated protein content in soybean. Genome 61(3):217-222.
Song L, Valliyodan B, Prince S, Wan J, Nguyen HT. (2018) Characterization of the XTH Gene Family: New Insight to the Roles in Soybean Flooding Tolerance. Int J Mol Sci. 19(9) pii: E270.
Valliyodan B, Ye H, Song L, Murphy M, Shannon JG, Nguyen HT. (2017) Genetic diversity and genomic strategies for improving drought and waterlogging tolerance in soybean. Journal of Experimental Botany 68 (8): 1835-1849.
Zheng Y, Hivrale B, Zhang X, Valliyodan B, Lelandais-Brière C, Farmer AD, May GD, Crespi M, Nguyen HT, Sunkar R. (2016) Small RNA profiles from soybean primary root tips in response to water deficit identify a critical role for miRNAs in adaptation to stress. BMC Systems Biology 10:126.
Liu Y, Khan SM, Wang J, Rynge M, Zhang Y, Zeng S, Chen S, Maldonado dos Santos JV, Valliyodan B, Calyam PP, Merchant N, Nguyen HT, Xu D, Joshi T. (2016) PGen: Large-scale genomic variations analysis workflow and browser in SoyKB. BMC Bioinformatics 17:337.
Foyer CH, Lam H-M, Nguyen HT, Siddique KHM, Varshney RK, Colmer TD, Cowling W, Bramley H, Mori TA, Hodgson JM, Cooper JW, Miller AJ, Kunert K, Vorster J, Cullis C, Ozga JA, Wahlqvist ML, Liang Y, Shou H, Shi K, Yu J, Fodor N, Kaiser BN, Wong F-L, Valliyodan B, Considine MJ. (2016) Neglecting legumes has compromised human health and sustainable food production. Nature Plants 16112 | DOI: 10.1038/NPLANTS.2016.112.
Valliyodan B, Qui D, Patil G, Zeng P, Huang J, Dai L, Chengxuan C, Zeng L, Joshi T, Vuong T, Musket T, Xu D, Shannon JG, Shifeng C, Liu X, Nguyen HT. (2016) Landscape of genomic diversity and trait discovery in soybean. Scientific Reports (Nature series), 6:23598.