Biotechnology and Biology of Trichoderma

Dr Vijai G. Gupta is an Assistant Professor of Biotechnology at MITS University of India. Currently he is working as Research Scientist at National University of Ireland in Galway. Dr. Gupta’s present work is focused on the development and optimization of novel Enzyme-based bioconversion systems for biorefining and bioenergy. He has been honored with several awards, including the prestigious Indian ICAR Senior Research Fellowship and Indian Young Scientist Award. He has submitted 33 new fungal nucleotide sequences and deposited 147 fungal strains in International databases. His work with Fusarium spp., Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Penicillium spp. and Trichoderma spp. is augmented by contributions to biotechnological development, molecular diversity, secondary metabolites and industrial applications
Dr. Gupta is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Plant Pathology and a regional editorial board member of 8 other respected journals. He is the author of 40 journal articles and 27 book chapters. Gupta has also written and edited books and series from reputed publishers, including CRC Press, Taylor and Francis, USA; Springer, USA; Elsevier, USA; Nova Science Publisher, USA and LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany.

Dr. Monika Schmoll received her degree (1999) and Ph. D. (2003) on regulation of cellulase expression and signal transduction in the filamentous fungus Hypocrea jecorina (Trichoderma reesei) at the Vienna University of Technology. Besides gaining postdoctoral experience and building her own group at the Vienna University of Technology, she has been a visiting scientist in the laboratory of Professor N. Louise Glass (Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, USA), the University of Rome La Sapienza and the University of Szeged, Hungary. She is author of 33 publications and 2 book chapters. Currently, Dr. Schmoll is group leader in the Research Area Molecular Biotechnology at the Vienna University of Technology. The primary research field of Dr. Schmoll is the interconnection between light response, sexual development and cellulase gene expression in Trichoderma reesei. She showed for the first time that cellulase gene expression is modulated by light in T. reesei and could since then elucidate important mechanistic details on the underlying mechanism. Her group discovered the sexual cycle in the biotechnological workhorse Trichoderma, which had previously considered asexual. This work was published in PNAS in 2009 and since then investigation of this phenomenon and its peculiarities in Trichoderma has become an additional focus. Her work with Trichoderma is complemented by contributions to genome annotation of several fungi (Trichoderma spp., Aspergillus nidulans, Postia placenta, Ceriporiopsis subvermispora), especially in the field of signal transduction.

Prof. Alfredo Herrera-Estrella grew up in Mexico City and graduated from the National School of Biological Sciences in 1985. He did his graduate research (1986-1990) with Prof. Marc Van Montagu at the State University of Ghent, Belgium, studying the T-DNA transfer process from Agrobacterium tumefaciens to plants. He described for the first time Agrobacterium virulence proteins capable of carrying the T-DNA into the plant cell nucleus, and began to study the mycoparasitic process of the biocontrol agent Trichoderma atroviride. Dr. Herrera-Estrella pioneered the development of molecular tools for the study of a biocontrol agent with the establishment of transformation systems, and cloning of the first mycoparasitism related genes. Such developments opened possibilities for strain improvement. He continued those studies while at the Genetic Engineering Department of the Irapuato Unit of Cinvestav (1991-2004), and began studies towards the elucidation of the mechanisms involved in light perception in Trichoderma. In 2000, he was awarded the prize of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. By 2004, he got involved in the establishment of the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity. Since then he and his group have been involved in Functional Genomics Projects, including the elucidation of the complete maize genome, and the development of advanced techniques to study gene expression by deep sequencing. Dr. Herrera-Estrella has continuing efforts in the elucidation of signaling cascades triggering asexual development in fungi. In particular his group has been using functional genomics approaches for this purpose, and recently has been involved in the study of the role of reactive oxygen species as signal molecules in injury responses in fungi.

Professor R. S. Upadhyay (b. November 15, 1955) received his M. Sc. (1976) and Ph. D. (1980) degrees from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. Since then he has been actively engaged in research. His main focus on research has been on biological control of plant pathogens, programmed plant cell death in response to pathogens, bioremediation of toxic effluents, induced resistance in plants and their immunization, plant growth promoting microbes, chitinase production from actinomycetes, mycorrhizal technology for reclamation of wastelands, role rhizobacteria in detoxifying phytotoxic effects, development of molecular markers in tracking microbes in environment, effect of biotic and abiotic factors on plants, and molecular basis of plant-microbe interaction specially for Trichoderma spp. & Fusarium spp. His work has been well cited internationally. He has been working at Banaras Hindu University in various positions such as Lecturer, (1984-88), Senior Lecturer, (1988-1991), UGC Research Scientist-B, BHU (1988-1991 on lien from BHU), Reader, Banaras Hindu University (1991-1999, appointed in absentia), Professor, (1999 till date), Student Advisor, Faculty of Science, BHU (2010-11), Coordinator, Environmental Science, BHU (2011 till date) and Dy. Coordinator, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, BHU (2011, for five years). He has been recipient of six prestigious national fellowships of the Government of India. He is recipient of five national awards in the area of science, two conferred by the Prime Minister of India. In addition he worked in prestigious foreign laboratories as visiting Scientist of The Royal Society, London (1988-89), Research Associate of NIH, U.S.A. (1990-91), and INSA- JSPS Fellowship, Japan (1994-95). He has also visited many other courtiers to participate in International conferences or for delivering invited lectures.

Dr. Irina Druzhinina studied biology at the Lomonosov’s State University in Moscow, Russia, and at the University of Vienna, where she graduated (PhD) in 2001. Thereafter she became a University Assistant in the research area of C.P. Kubicek at Vienna University of Technology, and habilitated in 2011 in “Microbiology”. She is now leader of the working group “Microbiology” at the same institute.

The scientific work of Irina Druzhinina started with a focus on mycology and molecular evolution, working on species diversity and population differentiation in Trichoderma, where she established an online tool for species identification based on DNA barcodes that is today one of the main resources for this purpose for researchers worldwide. In addition, she worked on such diverse topics as phenotype profiling of industrial fungi, peptaibol biosynthesis in Trichoderma, biodiesel production by marine algae, Trichoderma endophytes, biofungicide development and molecular ecology of Trichoderma. In the last years, her interest expanded to ecological genomics, i.e. the use of genome wide information to study the evolutionary adaptation of Trichoderma in its habitats. She acts as a member of the editorial board for Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and is the chair of the International Subcommission on Taxonomy of Trichoderma and Hypocrea, a member of ICTF/IUMS. She published > 60 papers in peer reviewed international journals and edited a book