Scientist Profile

Dr K.Thamilarasi

Dr K.Thamilarasi

Senior Scientist, Crop Improvement Division
ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore – 641 007 E mail: kthamilarasi@gmail.com
  • Molecular mechanisms involved in sugarcane waterlogging
  • Life member of Indian Science Congress Association
  • Life member of Society for Advancement of Natural Resins and Gums    
  • B. Vasantharaj David Foundation Award – 2021 for the contributions in lac molecular biology
  • P. Kameswara Rao Best oral presentation award for the paper on “Functional genomics based analysis of putative lac pigment biosynthesis genes” in the International conference on “Frontier Research in Applied Zoology and Insect Pest Management Strategies-A way forward for food and nutritional security” at UAS Raichur from 12 to 14 February, 2020 from the Applied Zoologists Research Association
  • Senior Research Fellowship from UGC during 2005-2008
  • Junior Research Fellowship from UGC during 2003-2005
  • JNU-DBT fellowship to pursue M. Sc in Agri. Biotechnology during 2000-2002
  • First graduate free education scholarship (9th rank in the state of Tamil Nadu, India) to pursue B.Sc (Agriculture) from Government of Tamil Nadu during1996-2000

Journal papers

  • K. Sinha, P. Bhavana, A.K. Singh, J.K. Ranjan, H. Choudhary, G.P. Mishra, K. Thamilarasi, P. Chaukhande, R. Shinde, P. Kumar, J. Rajak, S. Ekbal (2025) Unravelling genetic diversity in pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica) genotypes from India’s Eastern plateau and hill region: Insights from morphological and molecular markers. Journal of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. 23(3) 100542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgeb.2025.100542.
  • Vaibhav D. Lohot, Thamilarasi, J. Ghosh, A. Mohanasundaram, Vishwa V. Thakur. 2025. Assessment of changes in leaf biochemical constituents of Palas (Butea monosperma) during different stages of Lac insect (Kerria lacca Kerr) life cycle. International Journal of Tropical Insect Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-025-01519-2
  • Kandasamy T, Ansari MF, Ekbal S, Sharma KK. 2025. Effects of seedlac on soil bacterial diversity: An indication of environmental safety. Revista de Biologia Tropical 73: E60353.
  • A Mohanasundaram, KK Sharma, T Kandasamy, VD Lohot, J Ghosh and P Das. 2024. Assessment of Lac Diversity and Indigenous Technical Knowledge in North East Region of India. Indian Journal of Ecology 51(2): 427-433.
  • Shruti Sinha, Tasneem Anwar, Vaibhav D Lohot and Thamilarasi Kandasamy. 2024. Effect of different density of lac insect (Kerria lacca) infestation on host plant Flemingia macrophylla growth and photosynthetic pigments. International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research. SP-8(7): 250-256.           
  • Shruti Sinha, Tasneem Anwar, Vaibhav D Lohot and Thamilarasi Kandasamy. 2024. Antioxidant responses of bushy host plants Flemingia semialata and Flemingia macrophylla on inoculation of two different strains of lac insect (Kerria lacca (Kerr)). International Journal of Research in Agronomy. 7(6): 751-756.
  • Ali , H Naiya, A Mohanasundaram, R Mishra, KK Sharma, Anees K and Thamilarasi K. 2024. Comprehensive Study on Extractable Aleuritic Acid Variability in Lac Resins: Species, Host Plant, and Seasonal Effects with Storage Impact for Optimum and Sustainable Utilization of Lac Resins. Journal of Agri Search. 11(3): 179-186.
  • Kandasamy T, Ekbal S, Kumari K, Lohot VD, Mohanasundaram A and Sharma KK. 2022. Unraveling bacterial diversity of the Indian lac insect Kerria lacca (Kerr) using next generation sequencing. International Journal of Tropical Insect Science. 42: 2365-2372.
  • Thamilarasi Kandasamy, Sajiya Ekbal, Kanchan Kumari. 2021. SSH reveals different functional categories of putative resin synthesizing genes in the industrial insect, Kerria lacca (Kerr). Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology. 24(4):1187-1193.       
  • Lohot VD, Ghosh J, Thamilarasi K, Mohansundaram A, Sharma KK. 2020. Swadi Palas (IC0629501; 1NGR 19031, a flame of forest (Butea monosperma) with trifoliate leaflet and acute apex, larger flower with dull orange colour with early biological maturity. Journal of Plant Genetic Resources. 33: 270-271.
  • Thamilarasi Kandasamy, Kanchan Kumari, Jyotirmoy Ghosh, Kishor Tribhuvan, Vaibhav Lohot, Madhuranjana Gargi and S Ghosal. 2020. EST-SSRs reveal distinction between lac and grain yielding pigeonpea genotypes. Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology 29(3): 461-472.
  • Kanchan Kumari, Thamilarasi K, J Ghosh, Vaibhav D Lohot and S Ghosal. 2019. Molecular diversity analysis of pigeonpea genotypes for scar marker development. International Journal of Chemical Studies. SP6: 534-540.
  • Thamilarasi Kandasamy, Tamoshree Roy, A Mohanasundaram, KK Sharma and R Ramani. 2019. 18S rDNA based detection of hymenopteran parasitoids in the Indian lac insect, Kerria lacca (Kerr). Indian Journal of Experimental Biology. 57: 526-531.
  • Bhavana P, Singh AK, Kumar R, Prajapati GK, Thamilarasi K, Manickam R, Maurya S and Choudhary JS. 2019. Identification of resistance in tomato against root knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) and comparison of molecular markers for Mi gene. Australasian Plant Pathology. 48(2): 93-100.
  • Kandasamy T, Mishra V, Toppo N, Ranjan S, Mohanasundaram A, Sharma KK and Ramani. 2018. Genetic association of geographic populations and species of lac insects of the genus Kerria (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) with EST-microsatellite markers. Research Journal of Biotechnology. 13(9): 77-89.
  • Thamilarasi K, Sajiya E, Monika G, Kanchan K, Vaibhav DL, Mohanasundaram A and Sharma KK. 2018. Plant host induced variation of endosymbionts associated with kusmi lac insects. Multilogic in Science. VIII (C): 99-102.
  • Thombare N, Ch. Mate J, Thamilarasi K, Chowdhury AR and Srivastava S. 2018. Physico-chemical characterization and microbiological evaluation of gum ghatti as potential food additive. Multilogic in Science.           VIII (E): 316-319.     
  • Ghosh J, Jyoti A, Lohot VD, Sinha NK, Ghosal S, Thamilarasi K, Thakur VV. 2018. Consequence of Lac Cultivation on Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) Seeds and Seedling Establishment. Multilogic in Science VIII (C): 268-271.
  • Lohot VD, Ghosh J, Thakur VV, Sinha NK, Thamilarasi K, Mohanasundaram A and Ghosal S. 2018. Studies on effects of plant growth regulators on physiology of lac insect (Kerria lacca) infested Flemingia semialata (Roxb.) Multilogic in Science  VIII (B): 256-260.
  • Mohanasundaram A, Sharma KK, Lohot VD, Thamilarasi K, Ghosh J, Ramani R, Shamim G, Choudhury N and Eqbal S. 2018. Occurrence of Lac Insects and Their Host Plants in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Indian Journal of Entomology. 80(4): 1351-1358.
  • Mohanasundaram A, Ramani R, Sharma KK and Thamilarasi K. 2018. Reproductive Isolation in Lac Insects- Kerria lacca and Kerria chinensis. Indian Journal of Entomology. 80(4): 1327-1330.
  • Kishor U Tribhuvan, Deepak V Pawar, Vaibhav D Lohot, Shamshad Alam, Binay Kumar Singh, Sheeraz Saleem Bhat, Kewal K Sharma and Thamilarasi K. 2017. Isolation and Characterization of Root Nodule Bacteria from Flemingia Spp for Plant Growth Enhancement. Multilogic in Science. VII (XXIII): 274-278.    
  • Mudasir Gani, Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Sajad Majeed Zargar, Gurmeet Kour, Md Monobrullah, Thamilarasi Kandasamy, A. Mohanasundaram. 2017. Molecular identification and phylogenetic analyses of multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus isolated from Lymantria obfuscata (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) in India. Applied Entomology and Zoology. 52: 389-399.
  • Shamim Gulsaz, Ranjan Sanjeev Kumar, Kandasamy Thamilarasi, Sharma Kewal Krishan and Ranganathan Ramani. 2017. Bacterial flora associated with Kerria lacca (Kerr). Indian Journal of Entomology. 79(1): 41-48.
  • K Thamilarasi, Mousam K Ram, Vaibhav D Lohot, A Mohanasundaram, J Ghosh and KK Sharma. 2016. Genetic Diversity Analysis of Palas [Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub.] Flower Variants through Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA. Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources. 29(2): 187-193.
  • Siddiqui Mahtab Zakira, Thamilarasi K and Singh Bhoj Raj. 2015. Physico-chemical properties and protein profiling of gum exudates of Acacia nilotica collected from different agro-climatic zones in India. Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment. 19 (4): 29-36.
  • Gulsaz Shamim, Sanjeev Kumar Ranjan, Thamilarasi Kandasamy, Arumugam Mohanasundaram, Kewal Krishan Sharma and Ranganathan Ramani. 2014. Phylogenetic study of Lac Insects of Kerria using intron length polymorphism (EPIC-PCR). Journal of Entomology and Zoology Studies. 2 (4): 258-264.
  • Thamilarasi K, Kumari K, Anees K, Lohot VD and Ghosh J. 2013. Molecular diversity analysis of flower colour variants of Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub. using inter simple sequence repeats. The Bioscan. 8(3): 969-974.
  • Rajagopal, K.Thamilarasi, G.Raja Venkatesh, P. Srinivas, Raj K. Bhatnagar. 2005. Immune cascade of Spodoptera litura: Cloning, expression, and characterization of inducible prophenol oxidase. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 337: 394-400.
  • KK Kumar, K Poovannan, R Nandakumar, K Thamilarasi, C Geetha, N Jayashree, E Kokiladevi, JAJ Raja, R Samiappan, D Sudhakar, P Balasubramanian. 2003. A high throughput functional expression assay system for a defence gene expressing transgenic resistance on rice against the sheath blight pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani. Plant Science. 165: 969-976.

Books

  • Vaibhav D Lohot, Mohansundaram A, Thamilarasi K, Ghosh J, Nandkishore Thombare, Sharma KK, Abhijit Kar. 2023. Lac host plants of India – A field guide. ICAR-National Institute of Secondary Agriculture, Ranchi. pp 1-219. (ISBN: 978-93-5980-781-2).
  • Vaibhav D Lohot, Thamilarasi K, Ghosh J, Mohansundaram A and Sharma KK. 2016. Monograph on Palas, Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taubert. ICAR – Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Ranchi, India. 1-111 pp.

Book chapters

  • Thamilarasi K. 2023. In vitro production of high-value compounds using biotechnological tools. In: Rahul R. Bakade, Pradosh K. Paramaguru, Nirmal Kumar & Abhijit Kar (eds.) Training Manual on Secondary Agriculture, ICAR-National Institute of Secondary Agriculture, Ranchi. pp.148-153.
  • Kewal K Sharma and Thamilarasi Kandasamy. 2022. Interaction Among the Multi-Trophic Lac Insect Complex of Flora and Fauna: Impact on Quantity and Quality of the Resin Secreted. Arthropods – New Advances and Perspectives. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106902
  • Thamilarasi K and Kanchan Kumari 2022. Biotechnological interventions for the improvement of lac. In: Rahul R. Bakade, Pradosh K. Paramaguru, J. Ghosh, Nirmal Kumar & K.K. Sharma (eds.) Training Manual on Natural Resins & Gums, 136-140 pp. (ISBN: 978-93-5416-953-3). ICAR-Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Ranchi
  • Thamilarasi K and Sharma KK. 2019. Interaction of lac insects with microbes. In: Anil Kumar, Nagendra Kumar and Hari Chand (Eds.). Commercial Entomology. New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi, India (ISBN- 978-93-87973-87-9), 129-140 pp.
  • Vaibhav D Lohot, Mohanasundaram A, Thamilarasi K and KK Sharma. 2016. Collection and conservation of lac insect and host plant biodiversity, In: Yogi RK, Kumar Alok, Singh AK, Yadav SKS and Jaiswal AK (Eds.) Natural Resins and Gums: Agribusiness Modules for Skill and Entrepreneurship Development. ICAR-Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Ranchi, 49-52 pp
  • Thamilarasi K, Kumari K, Giri R, Anees K and Lohot VD. 2013. ISSR and RAPD Markers Based Genetic Diversity Study of Palas (Butea monosperma) Flower Colour Variants. In: Assessment and Conservation of Forest Genetic Resources through Biotechnological Interventions. Institute of forest productivity, Ranchi  

Others

  • Thamilarasi K, Sajiya Ekbal and Rashmi Mishra (2024) Lac ecosystem: Complex yet fascinating. Indian Entomologist 5(2):49-57. ISSN No. 2582-5828.
  • Thamilarasi K, Kanchan Kumari and Sajiya Ekbal (2022). Insect Pigments. Agriculture & Food e- Newsletter (ISSN: 2581-8317). Article id: pp. 475-478.