Naveenkumar Athiyannan's research is broadly focused on genetics and genomics to understand plant-pathogen interaction—particularly, the interaction of cereal crops such as wheat and barley against the fungal pathogens that cause rust disease. To combat rust disease, these crops have evolved with resistance mechanisms. Athiyannan is currently utilizing the recent advances in cereal genomics to identify the genetic components that confer resistance to rust diseases.

• Long-read genome sequencing of bread wheat facilitates disease resistance gene cloning, Athiyannan N†, Abrouk M†, Boshoff WHP†, Cauet S, Rodde N, Kudrna D, Mohammed N, Bettgenhaeuser J, Botha KS, Derman SS, Wing R, Prins R, Krattinger SG, Nature Genetics, 2022, 54:227-231.
• Mining the Vavilov wheat diversity panel for new sources of adult plant resistance to stripe rust, Jambuthenne DT, Riaz A, Athiyannan N, Alahmad S, Ng WL, Ziems L, Afanasenko O, Periyannan SK, Aitken E, Platz G, Godwin I, Voss-Fels KP, Dinglasan E, Hickey LT, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 2022, doi:10.1007/s00122-022-04037-8.
• Population genomics and haplotype analysis in spelt and bread wheat identifies a gene regulating glume color, Abrouk M†, Athiyannan N†, Müller T†, Pailles Y, Stritt C, Roulin AC, Chu C, Liu S, Morita T, Handa H, Poland J, Keller B, Krattinger SG, Communications Biology, 2021, 4:1-11.
• Extensive genetic variation at the Sr22 wheat stem rust resistance gene locus in the grasses revealed through evolutionary genomics and functional analyses, Md Hatta MA, Ghosh S, Athiyannan N, Richardson T, Steuernagel B, Yu G, Rouse MN, Ayliffe M, Lagudah ES, Radhakrishnan GV, Periyannan SK, Wulff BBH, Molecular Plant-Microbe Interaction, 2020, 33:1286-1298.
• Resistance gene cloning from a wild crop relative by sequence capture and association genetics, Arora S, Steuernagel B, Gaurav K, Chandramohan S, Long Y, Matny O, Johnson R, Enk J, Periyannan S, Singh N, Asyraf Md Hatta M, Athiyannan N, Cheema J, Yu G, Kangara N, Ghosh S, Szabo LJ, Poland J, Bariana H, Jones JDG, Bentley AR, Ayliffe M, Olson E, Xu SS, Steffenson BJ, Lagudah E, Wulff BBH, Nature Biotechnology, 2019, 37:139-143.
• Unlocking new alleles for leaf rust resistance in the Vavilov wheat collection, Riaz A, Athiyannan N, Periyannan SK, Afanasenko O, Mitrofanova OP, Platz GJ, Aitken EABB, Snowdon RJ, Lagudah ES, Hickey LT, Voss-Fels KP, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 2018, 131:127-144.
• Mining Vavilov’s treasure chest of wheat diversity for adult plant resistance to Puccinia triticina, Riaz A, Athiyannan N, Periyannan S, Afanasenko O, Mitrofanova O, Aitken EAB, Lagudah E, Hickey LT, Plant Disease, 2017, 101:317-323.
• Expression and inheritance of chimeric cry2AX1 gene in transgenic cotton plants generated through somatic embryogenesis, Sakthi AR, Naveenkumar A, Deepikha PS, Balakrishnan N, Kumar KK, Devi EK, Balasubramani V, Arul L, Singh PK, Sudhakar D, Udayasuriyan V, Balasubramanian P, In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology – Plant, 2015, 51:379-389.
• Characterization of parasporin gene harboring Indian isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis, Lenina NK, Naveenkumar A, Sozhavendan AE, Balakrishnan N, Balasubramani V, Udayasuriyan V, (2014) 3 Biotech, 2014, 4:545–551.

• PhD, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Australia, 2019
• MSc, Biochemistry, Kongunadu Arts and Science College, Bharathiar University, India, 2009

• 2019-present: Postdoctoral Fellow, KAUST, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
• 2018-2019: Research Assistant, CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra, Australia
• 2015-2018: Postgraduate Researcher, CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra, Australia
• 2010-2015: Senior Research Fellow, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India

• The Indian Science Congress
• Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology (India)
• Society of Biological Chemists (India)
• Australian Society for Plant Scientists (ASPS)

• CSIRO Chairman’s Medal for Science and Excellence (Team award), CSIRO, Canberra, Australia, 2017
• Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) Travel award, 2017
• CSIRO Agriculture and Food Director’s Diversity and Inclusion Award (Team award)
• The Crawford Fund Conference Scholar, 2015
• The University of Queensland Centennial Scholarship, 2014
• Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, 2014 

• Professor Simon Krattinger's group
• Center for Desert Agriculture (CDA)
• Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE)