Dr. Sheshshayee strategically identified physiological traits for drought adaptation and devised robust phenotyping methods to capture genetic variability. He established a National Facility for stable isotopes and a drought-simulator phenomics platform and screened large germplasms of rice, groundnut, ragi, etc. Precise stress imposition protocol, despite differences in transpiration developed by him, paved the way to assess stress response and variability in ‘Acquired tolerance’ traits. His pioneering efforts on QTL discovery and molecular breeding led to the development of rice (Daksha) and groundnut (GKVK-5) varieties through physiological traits introgression. The enhanced resilience and yield of these cultivars increased the income of the farmers.
Through active national and international collaborations, he sequenced the whole genome of ragi and developed extensive genetic and genomic resources for use in crop improvement.
He is a motivating teacher and contributed to restructuring the Plant Physiology syllabi in Agricultural Universities. He is an elected Fellow of NASI and a recipient of the prestigious INSA Teacher award.