Rhizosphere Microbes : Biotic Stress Management

This edited book volume aims to bringing out a comprehensive collection of latest information and developments on the management of biotic stresses by the use of rhizospheric microbes across the globe. The main focus of this book is to address the scientific and practical significance of rhizosphere microbes in biotic stress management. The microbial communities in the rhizosphere ecosystem play multitude of microbe-microbe, microbe-insect/pest and plant-microbe interactions and they have not yet been fully exploited to gain benefits in this field as well as to achieve sustainability in agriculture. Among the more recent strategies, stress tolerance/resistance induced by environment-friendly elicitors of microbial origin and/or rhizosphere microorganisms has emerged as a promising supplement in the approaches to crop protection. The proposed book entitled "Rhizosphere Microbes: Biotic Stress Management” is pertinent to rhizospheric microbe-mediated biotic stress management coveringall spheres of biotic stress tolerance viz., bio-resources, diversity, ecology, and functioning of microbial bio-control agents, host–parasite interaction, strategies to characterize microbial bioinoculants, interactions of rhizosphere microbes by developing a fundamental understanding of the microbial communities, exploration of the diverse roles of microbes and microbial communities and their role in biotic stress tolerance, microbe-mediated mitigation of biotic stresses, quorum sensing, microbial signalling and cross-talk in the rhizosphere, biofilm formation, cell-to-cell communication, role of microorganisms in ecosystems functioning under various biotic stress conditions, application of microbial bio-pesticides, molecular studies using microbial systems, etc. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, crop protection scientists, capacity builders and policymakers. Also the book serves as additional reading material for under-graduate, post-graduate, and post-doctorate fellow of agriculture, forestry, ecology, life science, and environmental sciences. National and international agricultural scientists, policy makers will also find this to be a useful read.

Dr. Udai Bhan Singh, presently working as Senior Scientist in the Plant-Microbe Interaction & Rhizosphere Biology Lab, ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Kushmaur, Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh, India. His specialized area are: Plant-Microbe Interactions in the rhizosphere with special reference to biotic and abiotic stress management/molecular biology/biotechnology/plant pathology. Dr. Singh has been awarded with ‘DST Young Scientist’ under Fast-Track Scheme, ‘Young Scientist award’ of RASSA, New Delhi, Bharat Shiksha Ratan Award, K.P.V. Menon and Prof. K.S. Bilgrami Best Poster Award for the Year 2018 by Indian Phytopathological Society, New Delhi and Indian Society of Mycology & Plant Pathology, Udaipur. He delivered several talks in international and national conferences. So far he had published 65 articles (research, review, book chapter, book etc.) in both national and international journals/book/conferences.

Dr. Pramod Kumar Sahu has completed B.Sc. from IGKVV, M.Sc. (Gold-Medalist) and Ph.D. (Agricultural Microbiology) from UAS, Bengaluru, India. He was a DST-Inspire fellow and was selected in various national level exams including ICAR-JRF, ICAR-SRF, ICAR-NET, ARS, and GATE. Being a Scientist of Agricultural Microbiology at ICAR - NBAIM, Mau, India, working on plant-endophyte interaction, consortium of bioinoculants, biological control, salinity stress alleviation, and has more than 48 research/ review papers, 1 book, 11 book chapters, 6 training manuals, 13 extension folders, 5 popular articles, and 30 abstracts to his credit. He has won NAAS Young Scientist Award in Plant Protection 2021, Dr. B. P. Pal’S Prize Gold Medal, Dr. G. Rangaswamy Gold Medal, Willium Rigo award, several best posters and best oral presentation awards along with Young Scientist in Agricultural Microbiology-2018 award.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan Singh is currently working as a Principal Scientist (Plant Pathology) at ICAR-NationalBureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Kushmaur, Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is specialized in the areas of: plant-microbe Interactions, biological control, biotic and abiotic stress management. He has vast research experience in the field of Plant Pathology with special reference to management strategies of biotic stress with application of microbes based technologies. He has also experience of biotic stresses of temperate crops of Jammu and Kashmir and grasses and fodder crops. He has worked related to microbial role in grassland productivity and nutrient cycling.  Studies on microbial diversity and seasonal dynamics in different horti and silvopastoral systems have been credited in his significant contribution towards grassland productivity.  He served as a Junior Scientist-cum-Assistant Professor in Plant Pathology (2002-2007) at RARSS, SKUAST-K, Kargil, Programme Coordinator (2007-2009) at KVK, Poonch, SKUAST-J and Senior Scientist (Plant Pathology) at ICAR-IGFRI, Jhansi from 2009-18. So for he has published more than 40 publications as research articles, 4 books and 6 review and 15 book chapters both in national and international journals. He has editor and reviewer of journals of reputed societies. He has been credited for several expert talk and invited speaker for different national and international symposium and conferences.

 Dr. Pawan Kumar Sharma did his M.Sc and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from by DR YSP University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan, HP . He is working as Principal scientist at ICAR-NBAIM at Mau, UP since September 2013. He had been associated with 14 projects as PI or Co-PI sponsored by various agencies. Currently he is working on biological control of wilt and collar rot diseases through liquid based formulation of Trichoderma and are also In-charge of National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection. He has published 46 research papers in national and international journals, edited 4 books, authored 1 book.

Dr Sushil K. Sharma is currently working as a Principal Scientist (Agricultural Microbiology) at ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India in the area of microbial resource conservation, secondary metabolites, and antimicrobial peptides for biotic stress management of crops. So far he had published 110 articles (research, review, book chapter, book etc.) in both national and international journals/book/conferences. His team has developed (1) a simple novel method for detection of operation of tryptophan-independent pathway in Micrococcus aloeverae DCB-20 and (20 low-cost preservation method of Chromobacterium violacium using natural gums at room temperature. He has been decorated with Best Scientist award by PEARL Foundation, Madurai, India and Excellence in PGPR Research by Asian PGPR Society. Recently, he has been nominated as a member of Biosafety and Biosecurity Cell (B2Cell) of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi. He has also delivered talked in PGPR conference organized in Columbia, Uzbeskistan and Indonesia.