Meta-omics in Crop Improvement

This book is the first of the two volumes and it focuses on exploring the meta-omics integrative techniques to enhance crop productivity, resilience and quality. With information on metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics and metabolomics, this volume provides an understanding of soil microbial communities and their interactions with crops. The chapters delve into specific techniques and tools within each meta-omics discipline, offering insights into their roles in crop improvement. From detecting plant pathogens to enhancing traits like stress resistance and nutritional quality, the book addresses modern agricultural challenges. It also tackles issues such as data integration and accessibility, while exploring future directions and real-world case studies that illustrate the impact of meta-omics on agriculture. Particular attention is given to deciphering microbiomes for various applications, with dedicated chapters on the core plant microbiome and tools and techniques of meta-transcriptomic studies. Readers will find details of methodologies that contribute to understanding complex microbial communities and their interaction with crops..

This essential resource is designed for researchers, scholars, and practitioners in the fields of agriculture, microbiology, and biotechnology.

Dr. Renu did her M.Sc. in biotechnology from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly and PhD in life sciences from Chatrapati Sahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur, India. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Plant Molecular Biology Department, National Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB affiliated Institute), Tehran, Iran during 2003-2005. Currently she is working as a Principal Scientist, Commercial Crops, Crop Science Division at ICAR Headquarters, New Delhi. She has more than 26 years of research experience and has led numerous projects in frontier areas of microbial biotechnology including microbe-based bioremediation of heavy metal polluted areas; meta-omics; organic farming, etc., resulting in over 151 publications including  research papers, articles, books, technical manual, etc. She is recipient of several awards and is Fellow of Society for Plant Research (FSPR) in 2019 and Fellow of Society for applied Biotechnology in 2012. 

Dr. Sanjeev Gupta started his career as a scientist in Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Presently, he is the Assistant Director General (Oilseed & Pulses) at Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. He has more than 32 years of research experience in grain legume genetics and breeding and developed 18 high yielding cultivars in grain legumes (Mungbean, blackgram and common bean). As a national coordinator on pulses, the efforts made by him led to increase mungbean and urdbean production in the country more than 2.5 times in short span of just past eight years and march towards self-sufficiency in pulses. He has authored nearly 125 research papers published in peer-reviewed internationally recognized journals. He has also edited six books on pulses. He is the Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and recipient of several awards for his research and literary contribution.

Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, a well-known Plant Molecular Biologist, is presently working as ICAR-National Professor-BP Pal Chair at NIPB, IARI, New Delhi. He has been former Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR, New Delhi and also acting DDG (Horticulture Science), Director &Vice Chancellor, IARI, New Delhi, IARI Assam, IARI Jharkhand and Director, NIBSM, Raipur.   He obtained three post-doctorate trainings in plant molecular biology and genome analysis, one at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and two from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA. Dr. Sharma is the fellow of all four national academies viz, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. His major research interests are in the areas of genomics and plant disease resistance. He was associated with the decoding of complete genomes of rice, tomato, pigeonpea, jute, mango, tea, guar, wheat, lathyrus and many plant pathogens. Dr. Sharma published more than 225 research papers in many peer reviewed journal including Nature, written two books and has obtained seven Indian patents.