Metabolomics, Proteomics and Gene Editing Approaches in Biofertilizer Industry

Biofertilizer refers to the live or latent microbial inoculants capable of enhancing plant growth through direct and indirect mechanisms. This book covers strategies for harnessing the integrated technologies, omics, proteomics, and metabolomics for the development of potential novel biofertilizers. Modern techniques for enhancing the efficacy and quality of biofertilizers has been discussed in detail. Increasing crop productivity poses a great challenge due to increasing global population and researchers are looking for solutions to this using sustainable approaches. Biofertilizers play an imperative role in enhancing yield production in crops and this book covers detailed account of biofertilizers on a single platform. It also provides guidance on sustainable ways of increasing crop production and helps in generating ideas to formulate collaboration between public and private sectors for future innovation in the field of biofertilizers.

This book is especially designed for the research graduates, young researchers and scholars who are directly involved in the research-related activities of the biofertilizers. It can also be useful to professors, lecturers, biotechnologists, biofertilizer production specialists and other stakeholders associated with strain improvement for biofertilizer development.

Dr. Sukhminderjit Kaur is working as Professor in the Department of Biotechnology, Chandigarh University, Mohali, India. She received her doctorate in 2008 from PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. She has experience of more than 20 years in academics and research and has published more than 58 research papers and various book chapters (16). Two patents have been granted to her credit for biofertilizer formulation.  She has edited various books also with reputed publishers. She has guided four doctorate students. She is a member of numerous scientific/professional societies including Indian Science Congress, Association of Microbiologists of India and Gastrointestinal Society of India. Her work is inclined towards exploring microorganisms in various applications such as biofertilizers development using different consortium of plant growth promoting bacteria, probiotics, and bioremediation.

Dr. Vagish Dwibedi obtained his Ph.D. from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India. He has conducted research projects and consultancy work in plant-microbe interaction, bioassay-guided drug discovery and development, sustainable agriculture and wastewater treatment. Presently, he is working as a visiting postdoctoral scientist at the Agriculture Research Organization, Ministry of Israel (ARO), Rishon Lezhion, Israel. Previously, he served two years as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnology, Chandigarh University, Gharuan Mohali, Punjab. Formerly, he worked as Research Scientist at AGPHARM BIOINNOVATIONS LLP, incubated at Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India. Dr. Dwibedi works toward developing screening platforms for different biological activities such as anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, or finding novel molecules that interfere in the mechanism of development of diseases such as Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, obesity, anti-gout (arthritis) and type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Pramod Kumar Sahu is currently working as Scientist (Sr. Scale) at ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dr. Sahu graduated from IGKVV Raipur, and obtained masters and Doctorate from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, India. His fields of interest are plant-endophyte interactions, soil microbiome, bioinoculants, biological control, salinity stress alleviation and confocal scanning laser microscopy. He has a research experience of 10 years and has published 62 research/review papers and 22 book chapters. He has developed methodologies for reversal of phenotypic conversion, fluid bed dried formulation, and screening of bacterial endophytes for bio-control activities. He was conferred with the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) - Young Scientist Award 2021, the Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI) - Young Scientist Award 2022, Dr. B. P. Pal’s Prize Gold Medal, Dr. G. Rangaswamy Gold Medal and Young Scientist Award in Agricultural Microbiology-2018 and many other awards to his repute.