Primary research interest is in understanding the common complex diseases, gene variation, epigenetic patterns and their possible relationship with diet. The ethnic health disparities result from environment x gene interactions, particularly those involving dietary factors. Maternal nutritional imbalance and metabolic disturbances during critical time windows of development may have a persistent effect on the health of the offspring and may even be transmitted to the next generation. Imprinted genes, which control feto-placental nutrient supply and demand and their epigenetic liability in response to nutrients, may play an important role in adaptation/evolution. Thus the idea is to devise genome-based nutritional interventions to prevent, delay, and treat diseases such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

1. Manchala Raghunath, Lagishetty Venu, Inagadapa J. N. Padmavathi, Manisha Ganeshan, K Anand Kumar, Pothaganti B. Sainath and Kalashikam Rajender Rao. (2009). Modulation of macronutrient metabolism in the offspring by maternal micronutrient deficiency: some recent observations in experimental animals. Indian Journal of Medical Research (in press).
2. Venu L, Padmavathi I J N, Kishore Y D, Vijaya Bhanu N, Rajender Rao K, Sainath P B, Manisha Ganesghan and Raghunath M. (2008).  Long term effects of maternal Magnesium restriction on adiposity and insulin resistance in rat pus. Obesity. 16, 1270 – 1276.
3. Lagishetty V, Nandiwada VB, Kalashikam RR, Manchala R. (2007).  Effect of maternal vitamin and mineral restrictions on the body fat content and adipocytokine levels of WNIN rat offspring. Nutr Metab (Lond). 4(1): 21
4. K. Rajender Rao, Ahmed N, Srinivas S, Leonardo A. Sechi, and Seyed E. Hasnain (2006). Rapid identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing genotypes on the basis of the mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit locus 26 signature. J Clini Microbio . 44(1): 274-7.
5. K. Rajender Rao, Kauser F, Srinivas Sriramula, Zanetti S, Sechi LA, Niyaz Ahmed and Seyed E. Hasnain (2005). Analysis of genomic downsizing on the basis of region-of-difference polymorphism profiling of Mycobacterium tuberculosis patient isolates reveals geographic partitioning.  J Clini Microbio. 43(12): 5978-82.
6. Kenchappa P, K. Rajender Rao, Ahmed N, Joshi S, Ghousunnissa S, Vijayalakshmi V and Murthy K J. (2005).  Fluorescent Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (FAFLP) based molecular epidemiology of hospital infections in a tertiary care setting in Hyderabad, India. Infection, Genetics and Evolution. July 00 –00 -00
7. Prashanth Kenchappa, Virender S Sangwan, Niyaz Ahmed, K. Rajender Rao, Pathengay A, Annie Mathai, Mansoori T, Das T, Hasnain SE, Sharma S. (2005). High-resolution genotyping of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains linked to acute post cataract surgery endophthalmitis outbreaks in India. Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials.12; 4:19
8. Kauser F, Hussain MA, Ahmed I, Srinivas S, Devi SM, Majeed AA, K. Rajender Rao, Khan AA, Sechi LA, and Ahmed N (2005). Comparing genomes of Helicobacter pylori isolates recovered from ulcer disease patients in England. BMC Microbiology.25;5(1):32.
9. P.Vijayachari, Niyaz Ahmed, A. P. Sgunan, Sheikh  Ghousunnissa, K. Rajender Rao, SE Hasnain and Subhash C. Sehgal (2004)  Fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (FAFLP) based molecular epidemiology of Leptospirosis in India. Journal of Clinical microbiology. 42(8): 3575 - 80.
10. Niyaz Ahmed, Mahfooz Alam, K. Rajender Rao, Farhana K,  Ashok kumar.N, Vartul S, sharma D ,Ram das, V.M katoch, KJR murthy, Sujai suneetha, Sk sharma, Leonardo A Sechi, RobertH Gilman, SE hasnain (2004) Molecular genotyping of a large multi centric collection of tuberculebacilli  indicates geographical partitioning of strain variation: implications in global epidemiology of M.tuberculosis. Journal of Clinical microbiology. 42:(7)3242 - 47.
11. Majeed A A, Niyaz Ahmed, K. Rajender Rao, S. Ghousunnissa, H. A. Nagarajaram, V. M. Katoch, Debby V. Cousins, Leonardo A. Sechi, Robert H. Gilman 5 and Seyed E. Hasnain (2004) AmpliBASE MT ® : A Mycobacterium tuberculosis diversity knowledgebase. Bioinformatics 20(6):989-92
12. Balaji Meriga, B. Krishna Reddy, K.Rajender Rao, L. Ananda Reddy and P.B.Kavi Kishor (2004) Effect of aluminium on lipid peroxidation, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and DNA damage in rice seedlings . J. Plant. Physio. Vol 161:63 - 68.
13. Niyaz Ahmed, Luz Caviedes, Mahfooz Alam, K. Rajender Rao, Vartul Sangal, Patricia Sheen, Robert H.Gilman and Seyed E.Hasnain (2003) Distinctiveness of Mycobacterium tuberculosis genotypes from HIV-1 seropositive and seronegative patients in Lima, Peru. Journal of Clinical microbiology. 41: 1712 - 1716.
14.  Kalashikam Rao., Acheré V., Bastien C., Bastien J.C., Benoît V., Faivre        Rampant P., Favre J.M., Jorge V., Leplé J.C., Verger M. & Prat D. (2002). Linkage mapping and QTL analysis for growth of young Pseudotsuga menziesii plants. Forestry,Wood products and Biotechnology .
15.  K. Rajender Rao, P B Kavi Kishor and K Vaidyanath (2002) Biotechnology of    Sesame: An oil seed crop. Plant Cell Biotechnology and Molecular Biology vol 3. 101 - 110.
16.  K. Rajender Rao and Vaidyanath, K., 1997 Induction of multiple shoots from seedling shoot tips of different varieties of Sesamum. Indian Journal of Plant Physiology 10(4) : 257 - 261.
17.  K. Rajender Rao, and Vaidyanath, K., 1997 Callus induction and morphogenesis in Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.). Advances in Plant Sciences. 10(2): 21 - 26.

1. K. Rajender Rao et al 1999 Plant Biotechnology (for B.Sc. Students), Prof. T.N. Mary (ed), Academy Press, Government of Andhra Pradesh, India.

1. Vaidyanath. K and Rajender Rao. K.  2004. Biotechnology and the improvement of oil seed crops -- Indian context: Gleanings in Plant Sciences, Vedams  eBooks (P) Ltd. New Delhi.
2. Rajender Rao K and Vaidyanath K. 2003 Biotechnology of Sesame. Plant Genetic Engneering: Improvement of Commercial Plants-II. Vol. 4: 221 - 234. Sci Tech Publishing Lic, U.S.A.
3. Rajender Rao, K. and Vaidyanath, K., 2000 Biotechnology of Sesamum : Problems and prospects. Recent advances in Biotechnology P.C Trivedi (ed) pp. 106 – 120, Panima Publishing Corporation, New Delhi – India.
4. Rajender Rao, K. and Vaidyanath, K., 1999 Biotechnology and Sesamum improvement. Proceedings of National Symposium on "Plant tissue culture and molecular biology : Emerging trends" P.B. Kavi Kishor (ed), pp. 37 - 46, Orient Longman, Universities Press (India) Limited