Application of Eco-Friendly Exogenous Elicitors and Metabolic Dissection for Crop Improvement

Due to the alarming increase in human population and global food demand, farmers are looking for a better option that can provide them huge benefits within a short period of time. The use of chemical pesticides, fungicides, or other chemical fertilizers altogether causes a huge adverse impact on the environment. Using environmentally safe elicitor molecules can solve this problem in two ways. First, their application is a cost-effective process, which can provide maximum benefit to the farmers. Second, they are safe to apply directly to the environment.

Key features of the book:

1. It covers a vast area of research undertaken on elicitation processes
2. It comprises both biotic and abiotic stress tolerance through elicitation
3. It highlights a low-cost technology for adoption in future for larger benefits for a better future
4. Omics approaches are highlighted
5. The chapters are supported by sufficient illustrations

This book comprises aspects of elicitation or elicitor-mediated research undertaken so far, to provide a direction toward a chemical-hazard-free world without compromising the yield and market value of the plant-based products. This book aims to guide students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as researchers, academicians and other industry professionals.

Dr. Nilanjan Chakraborty completed his M.Sc. from the Department of Botany, University of Calcutta. He completed his Ph.D from the same university under the guidance of Prof. Krishnendu Acharya, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta. He joined Scottish Church College as an assistant professor in the year 2013. To date, he has published more than 65 research articles and 20 book chapters. He has 1333 Scopus citations and 1633 Google Scholar citations. His h-index is 18 (Scopus) and 20 (Google Scholar), while his Google Scholar i10 index is 31. He has received a few awards like the "Young Faculty Award, 2021" from the International Benevolent Research Foundation (IBRF), Kolkata; "Swami Vivekananda Excellence Award, 2022" from the World Achievers Foundation, Kolkata etc. He has reviewed several articles from various international journals, and he is on the editorial boards of a few national journals as well.

Prof. Aryadeep Roychoudhury is currently a professor in the Discipline of Life Sciences, School of Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. Before joining IGNOU, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Post Graduate Department of Biotechnology, St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata. He did a B.Sc. (Honors) in Botany at Presidency College, Kolkata, and M.Sc. in Biophysics and Molecular Biology from University of Calcutta. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Science and pursued research at Bose Institute, Kolkata in the area of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. His research interests include physiological and molecular responses and cell signaling of plants during diverse abiotic stresses, including fluoride, heavy metals, salinity, and drought. His postdoctoral research was based on transgenic rice development tolerant to environmental stress. He holds 24 years of research experience in the concerned discipline. He has handled several government-funded projects on abiotic stress responses in rice and supervised five Ph.D. students as the sole principal investigator. To date, he has published over 270 articles in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in books of international and national repute. He has edited 15 books from reputed publishers and has also guest-edited special issues in several renowned international journals. He is a regular reviewer of articles in high-impact international journals, a life member of several scientific associations and societies, and the recipient of the Young Scientist Award 2019, conferred by the International Foundation for Environment and Ecology at the University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is also the recipient of Distinguished Scientist Award - 2024 conferred upon him by the Institute of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Sciences, India. His name is included in Stanford University's List of World's Top 2% most influential scientists.

Prof. Krishnendu Acharya pursued a master's in Botany from the University of Calcutta. He then completed his M.Tech. and Ph.D. from Jadavpur University. He joined the University of Calcutta as Lecturer of Botany in 2004 and soon acceded to Professorship in 2012. To date, he has supervised more than 20 Ph.D students and published more than 480 research articles and 8 books. He has 10907 Scopus citations and 14975 Google Scholar citations. His h-index is 55 (Scopus) and 61 (Google Scholar), while his Google Scholar i10 index is 281. He was ranked 1st among top 100 authors of state universities based on Indian Citation Index 2016 by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He has been listed on Elsevier's (Stanford University) list of the world's top 2% of scientists for the last four years. He has been elected as a Fellow of the West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology, the Linnean Society of London, the Mycological Society of India, the Indian Mycological Society, and the International College of Nutrition, Canada. He has received many awards, including the Sir Edwin John Butler Memorial Award, the Patel Memorial Award, the Global Achievement in the Field of Phyllosphere Biology, and the Prof. K. Natarajan Memorial Award. He is on the editorial boards of many national and international journals. He is actively and regularly engaged in lecturing at different seminars, universities, and colleges to boost young minds and inspire students.