Improving Stress Resilience in Plants

Dr. Mohammad Abass Ahanger is currently working as Assistant Professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, China. Dr. Ahanger completed his Postgraduate education in Botany from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, India in 2010 specializing in plant stress physiology and biochemistry. After receiving M Phil, Dr Ahanger completed his Ph D in 2016 from the same university. After working on allelopathic stress for another one year, Dr Ahanger was involved in teaching Plant Physiology and biochemistry to graduate student. Thereafter, he joined Northwest A&F University Yangling, China as post-doctoral fellow and worked on the phytohormone, mineral nutrient and nano material mediated abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. Later Dr Ahanger joined Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan and worked on rice stress signalling. His main research interests are elucidation of tolerance mechanisms in plants for improved abiotic stress tolerance. He has published research in reputed national and international journals, and has edited books, and contributed book chapters to internationally published volumes. Dr Bhat is an Associate Professor, International Genome Centre, Jiangsu University, China. He also worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at State Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University (June-2018 to November-2021). Dr. Bhat is recipient of Research Associateship at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Human Resource Development Group, CSIR Complex, PUSA, New Delhi in 2017 (2016-2018). He is mainly engaged in Plant Genetics, Molecular Breeding, Functional and Applied Genomics, and Computational Biology; In addition, he is engaged in Plant Stress Physiology, Signalling and Genetics particularly for the case of abiotic stresses including heavy metals/metalloids. He has published more than 80 papers in many well reputed SCI Journals serves as editor/Associate editor of journals including Frontiers in Genetics, Environmental Pollution, Functional Plant Biology, Biocell, Biomolecules and Physiologia Plantarum, as well as reviewer of many other SCI journals. Dr. Parvaiz Ahmad is working as Senior Assistant Professor at Department of Botany at Govt Degree College Pulwama, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India and also Visiting Scientist at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He completed his post-graduate degree in Botany in 2000 at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. After receiving a Doctorate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, India, he joined the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, in 2007. His main research area is Stress Physiology and Molecular Biology. He has published more than 100 research papers in peer reviewed journals, and 50 book chapters. He is also an Editor of 30 book volumes published by Studium Press Pvt. India Ltd., New Delhi, India; Springer, New York; Elsevier USA; and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. He is a recipient of the Junior Research Fellowship and Senior Research Fellowship award, granted by CSIR, New Delhi, India. Dr. Ahmad was awarded the Young Scientist Award under the Fast Track scheme in 2007 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. Dr. Ahmad is actively engaged in studying the molecular and physio-biochemical responses of different agricultural and horticultural plants under environmental stress. Dr. Riffat John is a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. She is currently working as senior assistant professor in the Department of Botany, University of Kashmir. She is a dedicated and enthusiastic academician and researcher with 15 years of refined teaching and research experience in plant stress biology and molecular biology. She has also been successful in obtaining various extra mural grants. Dr. Riffat John is also the recipient of an Indo-US Getin Fellowship by IUSSTF. She was awarded Young Scientist Award by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of Jammu and Kashmir in 2015. Dr. Riffat has published 31 papers in International Journals and six book chapters.

Physiology
1. Physiological adaptation of plants to abiotic stresses
2. Modulation of physiology in plants through osmolytes application
3. Studying the physiology of genetically modified crop plants
4. Root traits and water relations in plants under stresses
5. Role of soil microbes in modulating the physiological attributes of plants under extreme environmental conditions
6. Morphological modulations in plants exposed to abiotic and biotic stresses
7. Physiological modulations/ adaptations of plants for improved mineral nutrition under stresses
8. Regulation of photosynthesis under stress
9. Water relation, photosynthesis and plant growth
10. Modification of physiological attributes by nano-fertilizes attributes for improved stress tolerance
11. Physiological modification in plants under fungicide and pesticide stress

Biochemistry
12. Modulation of plant biochemistry through excess use of fungicides and herbicides in plants
13. Enzyme functioning and environmental stresses
14. Plant nitrogen metabolism: effects of stresses and the mitigating role of mineral elements and phytohormones
15. Plant nitrogen metabolism: effects of stresses and the mitigating role of compatible osmolytes
16. Modulation of sulphur metabolism in plants under stress conditions: role of mineral elements
17. Sulphur metabolism and phytohormones interactions in plants under stress
18. Antioxidant system: role and regulation under environmental stresses vis-à-vis mineral nutrition
19. Understanding the role of plant growth regulators as key players in stress signalling
20. Role of phytohormones in improving stress tolerance: Focus on the antioxidant system
21. Understanding the role of thiols in stress biology of crop plants
22. Ascorbate-Glutathione Pathway: abiotic stress tolerance in plants and modulations by exogenous osmo-protectants
23. Photosynthesis: role of antioxidant system and glyoxylase system
24. Reactive oxygen species production: production. Signalling, and antioxidant and glyoxylase defence systems
25. Understanding the biochemical basis of stress signalling in plants
26. Breeding and Plant Stress Tolerance
27. Integrated approaches of "omics" for the improvement of stress tolerance in plants
28. Understanding the regulatory mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in plants by using genomic approaches
29. Prognosis for genetic improvement of yield potential of major grain crops under environmental stress
30. Genotypic variation for stress tolerance in legume crops
31. Genomics-assisted breeding for the development of stress tolerant crop varieties
32. Marker assisted selection in plant breeding for stress tolerance
33. Recent advances in plant breeding for the improvement of plant stress tolerance: Prospects and limitations
34. QTLs for stress tolerance in plants
35. CRISPR gene editing and stress tolerance
36. Genetic approaches for tolerance to multiple stresses