In Silico Approach for Sustainable Agriculture

This book explores the role of in silico deployment in connection with modulation techniques for improving sustainability and competitiveness in the agri-food sector; pharmacokinetics and molecular docking studies of plant-derived natural compounds; and their potential anti-neurodegenerative activity. It also investigates biochemical pathways for bacterial metabolite synthesis, fungal diversity and plant-fungi interaction in plant diseases, methods for predicting disease-resistant candidate genes in plants, and genes-to-metabolites and metabolites-to-genes approaches for predicting biosynthetic pathways in microbes for natural product discovery.

The respective chapters elaborate on the use of in situ methods to study biochemical pathways for bacterial metabolite synthesis; tools for plant metabolites in defence; plant secondary metabolites in defence; plant growth metabolites; characterisation of plant metabolites; and identification of plant derivedmetabolites in the context of plant defence.

The book offers an unprecedented resource, highlighting state-of-the-art research work that will greatly benefit researchers and students alike, not only in the field of agriculture but also in many disciplines in the life sciences and plant sciences.

Dr. Devendra K. Choudhary has over 16 years of research experience in Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology and is currently working as Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences at PDM University, Bahadurgarh, Haryana. Before PDM he worked as an Associate Professor in Amity University, Noida. Before joining Amity University he spent several years in Mody University, Lakshmangarh, Rajasthan, as an Assistant Professor preceded by People's University and Barkatullah University, Bhopal, as an Assistant Professor cum Scientist.

Dr. Choudhary received his PhD in Microbiology in 2005 from GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, after having received his MSc in Microbiology from MDS University, Ajmer and qualifying CSIR-UGC-NET in 2002.

Dr. Choudhary has worked on GOI sponsored major projects as Principal Investigator (PI). Recently he worked on the DST FAST-TRACK project at the Department of Biotechnology, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, along with two major projects for the DBT and SERB, at Amity University.

As an active researcher, Dr. Choudhary has published 57 research and review articles along with several book chapters for reputed journals and edited books. He is a recipient of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) visiting and summer research fellowship 2014.

Further, one of his PhD students received the 2013 Dr. RS Rana Memorial best research award, sponsored by the Association of Microbiologists of India. Under Dr. Choudhary's supervision, his scientific team assigned two accession numbers from MTCC, IMTECH for submitted bacterial cultures (MTCC, 12057 & 12058) along with one MCC no 2607. Most recently, his team has filed three patents with the India Patent Office, New Delhi and others are in progress.

Dr. Manoj Kumar is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Life Sciences, Central University ofJharkhand. Dr. Kumar received his PhD in Plant Biotechnology from the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, before being awarded consecutive postdoctoral fellowships to the IISc Bangalore and University of Pretoria. He currently serves as a reviewer for several journals, including Phytoremediation, Journal of Soil Sediments and many more. Dr. Kumar's chief research interest is in the integration of microbial genetics with a breadth of plant physiological approaches to enable novel gene discovery.

Dr. Ram Prasad is Senior Assistant Professor at the Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India. His research interests include plant-microbe interactions, sustainable agriculture and microbial nanobiotechnology. Dr. Prasad has more than hundred publications to his credit, including research papers & book chapters, has edited or authored several books, and holds five patents (issued or pending). He has eleven years of teaching experience and was honored with the Young Scientist Award (2007) and Prof. J.S. Datta Munshi Gold Medal (2009) by the International Society for Ecological Communications; FSAB fellowship (2010) by the Society for Applied Biotechnology; Outstanding Scientist Award (2015) in the field of Microbiology by Venus International Foundation; and the American Cancer Society UICC International Fellowship for Beginning Investigators (USA, 2014). In 2014-2015, Dr. Prasad served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA.

Dr. Vivek Kumar is an Associate Professor at Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India. He obtained his masters and doctoral degree from CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India. He currently serves on the editorial boards of many prominent international journals, e.g. Environment Asia, International Journal of Biological & Chemical Sciences, Journal of Advanced Botany and Zoology, and Journal of Ecobiotechnology. He is also a reviewer for e.g. the Journal of Hazardous Materials, Science International, Acta Physiologiae Plantarum, Environment Science & Pollution Research, and Rhizosphere. He has published 61 research papers, 19 book chapters, six review articles and two books. Dr. Kumar also served as a Microbiologist for eight years at the Department of Soil and Water Research, Public Authority of Agricultural Affairs & Fish Resources, Kuwait.