Beneficial Microbes in Agro-Ecology: Bacteria and Fungi

Dr. N. Amaresan is an Assistant Professor at C.G. Bhakta Institute of Biotechnology, Uka Tarsadia University, Gujarat. He is a Microbiologist, having obtained his Ph.D., degree on endophytic PGP bacteria from Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu. Dr. N. Amaresan has over thirteen years of experience in teaching & research and made several original and novel discoveries in various allied fields of microbiology mainly plant-microbe interactions, bioremediation, plant pathology and others. For his original discoveries on agriculturally important microorganisms he has been awarded young scientist awards by Association of Microbiologists of India and National Academy of Biological Sciences. He also been awarded visiting scientist fellowship from National Academy of India to learn advanced techniques. He also deposited over 380 bacterial 16S rDNA and fungal ITS rDNA sequences in the Genbank (NCBI, EMBL & DDBJ) and also preserved over 150 microbial germplasm in various culture collection centres of India.

Dr. M. Senthil Kumar is a Senior Scientist (Microbiology) at ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur. He has fifteen years of research experience on different aspects of plant-microbe interactions including biological control of soybean diseases and microbial mediated abiotic stress management in pulses. He explored the diversity of endophytic bacteria from wild and cultivated soybean varieties for biological control of soybean charcoal rot disease. He purified anti-microbial peptides from endophytic bacteria. He has developed bioinoculants and microbial consortia for improving moisture-deficit stress tolerance of rainfed chickpea.

Dr. K. Annapurna is Head, Division of Microbiology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-12, India. She has been a pioneer researcher in the field of molecular ecology of legume - Rhizobium symbiosis, Azospirillum, Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and initiated work on soybean rhizobial genetic diversity. Through individual efforts, whole genome sequence of new strains of soybean (Bradyrhizobium liaoningense KAS-1) and chickpea root nodule bacteria strain DKA-1 initiated. She has developed a PCR based diagnostic marker for rapid identification of slow growing soybean root nodulating bacteria from soil and has demonstrated the tripartite interactions between legume plant, Rhizobium and rhizobacteria. Her research into endophytes and soil metagenomics has identified potent biocontrol agents and genes coding for different antibiotics. A highly potent bio-control agent Paenibacillus polymyxa HKA 15 which reduced the incidence of charcoal rot in soybean by almost 80% identified. She is currently focusing on the impact of bio-inoculants especially bio-control agents on soil microbial community diversity and structure. She visited several international research organizations as visiting scientist/ research collaborator including University of Tennessee, Knoxville and University of Missouri, Columbia) USA, CSIRO laboratories in Australia under the Australian Govt. Crawford Fund, Beijing University, Beijing, China, Ege University, Turkey, Oxford Univ and JIC, Norwich, etc. She received several awards via., IARI Best Teacher Award for Excellence in Teaching, Young Scientist Award conferred by Society of Basic and Applied Mycology, Women Leadership Award conferred by Asian PGPR Society, India Woman leader in Biosciences -Recognition by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.

Dr. Krishna Kumar received his BE degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Govind Ballabh Pant Engineering College, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India, MTech degree in Digital Systems from Motilal Nehru NIT, Allahabad, India, in 2006 and 2012, respectively, and PhD degree in the Department of Hydro and Renewable Energy at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, in 2023. He is currently working as an Assistant Engineer at UJVN Ltd. (a State Government PSU of Uttarakhand) since January 2013. Before joining UJVNL, he worked as an Assistant Professor at BTKIT, Dwarahat (a Government of Uttarakhand Institution). He has published numerous research papers in international journals and conferences, including IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, MDPI, Hindawi, and Wiley. He has also edited and written books for Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, Springer, River Press, and Wiley. His current research interests include IoT, AI, and renewable energy.

Dr. A. Sankaranarayanan is an Assistant Professor in Microbiology, C.G. Bhakta Institute of Biotechnology, Uka Tarsadia University, Gujarat. He previously served as an Assistant Professor & Head, Department of Microbiology, K.S.R. College of Arts & Science, Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu. He has experience in the fields of antimicrobial activity, antibacterial potential of nanoparticles and environmental microbiology. His current research focus is on antibacterial potential of herbal products against multi drug resistant microbial pathogens and pesticide / insecticide degradation by bacteria and fungi in freshwater ecosystem. He received a summer research fellowship for young teachers consecutively for three years by National Academies of India