Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
📍 4F5-AB2
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Research Area
Evolution, Genetics, Genomics
Research Interests
Currently, the research projects include various questions from symbiosis, host-microbe interactions, the biology of maternally inherited endosymbionts, behavioral ecology, and microbiome dynamics.
2010 - 2013 : Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Purdue University, Indiana, USA
2003 - 2010 : PhD, University of Rochester, New York, USA
2003 - 2005 : MS (Ecology and Evolution), University of Rochester, New York, USA
1999 - 2001 : MSc (Zoology), Ballygunge Science College, University of Calcutta
1999 : BSc (Honours in Zoology), Presidency College (Now Presidency University), Kolkata
Renuka Agarwal, Manisha Gupta, Ruchira Sen, Aanchal Panchal, Nimisha ES and Rhitoban Raychoudhury. Investigation into how Odontotermes obesus maintains a predominantly Termitomyces monoculture in their fungus combs suggests a potential partnership with both fungi and bacteria. Communications Biology 7(1):1010, 2024. Garima Prazapati, Ankit Yadav, Anoop Ambili, Abhilasha Sharma and Rhitoban Raychoudhury. Males of the parasitoid wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, can identify which fly hosts contain females. Royal Society Open Science 9(1):211865, 2022. Renuka Agarwal, Manisha Gupta, Abin Antony, Ruchira Sen and Rhitoban Raychoudhury. In Vitro Studies Reveal that Pseudomonas, from Odontotermes obesus Colonies, can Function as a Defensive Mutualist as it Prevents the Weedy Fungus While Keeping the Crop Fungus Unaffected. Microbial ecology, pages 1–13, 2022. Ruchira Sen, Kunika Malhotra, Manisha Gupta, Rajbir Kaur, Divya Bawa, Meghna Duhan, Sonia Sandhi, Pratibha Songara, Deepak Nain and Rhitoban Raychoudhury. Coping with the ‘Indian summer’: unique nesting cycle and nest architecture of the paper wasp, Polistes wattii. The Science of Nature 109(3):31, 2022. Alok Tiwary, Rahul Babu, Ruchira Sen and Rhitoban Raychoudhury. Bacterial supergroup-specific “cost” of Wolbachia infections in Nasonia vitripennis. Ecology and Evolution 12(9):e9219, 2022. Manisha Gupta, Rajbir Kaur, Ankita Gupta and Rhitoban Raychoudhury. Are ecological communities the seat of endosymbiont horizontal transfer and diversification? A case study with soil arthropod community. Ecology and Evolution 11(21):14490–14508, 2021.