Microbiome and Nano-Cross-Talk

Dr. Kanchan Vishwakarma has expertise in plant-nanoparticle and plant-microbe interactions. She has experience in assessing the whole microbial diversity of plant by high throughput metagenomic approach under external stimuli. She has worked on optimization, synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles and tested their impact on plants with emphasis on regulatory detoxification pathways. She has explored the utilization of beneficial microbes, phytohormones and nanoparticles with respect to plant growth and published number of research and review articles in journals of repute such as Journal of Hazardous Materials, Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, Frontiers in Plant Science, Frontiers in Microbiology and numerous book chapters. Dr. Nitin Kumar has expertise in synthesising different types of nanomaterials ranging from nanoparticles to nanorods, nanostars of variety of metals and their characterization. He has also developed an electrochemical immunosensor of gold nanoparticles and gold nanorods for detection of antigens and published articles in international reputed journals. He has also worked in collaboration with other scientists in the field of plant-microbe interaction. Awards: Two times Tony B Academic Awardee (SLAS-USA and SLAS-Europe) Prof. Agbaje Lateef is the Head of LAUTECH Nanotechnology Research Group (NANO+) at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria. He received advanced training in fermentation technology, enzyme technology, biocatalysis, functional foods and molecular biology at Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, India. He has more than twenty years of research and teaching with interest in industrial microbiology and biotechnology, especially fermentation processes, enzyme technology and nanobiotechnology. He has more than one hundred publications in reputable journals and books to his credits, more than fifty of which are in nanobiotechnology. He is recognised as the foremost microbiologist, as the National Young Microbiologist of the year 2013 through the award of Professor Oyewale Tomori National Prize for Young Scientists in Microbiology by the Nigerian Young Academy (NYA). He also significant outreach of research by media publications to promote research activities.

• 1. Concepts and definitions in microbiology and nanotechnology in plant sciences2. Uptake of nanomaterials by plants and translocation within plants3. Cross-talk of nanoparticles with plant signalling molecules: morphological, physiological, and genotoxic aspects4. Highlighting the properties of commercially used nanomaterials-based products and their application in agriculture5. Environmental behaviour and fate of nanomaterials in plant-soil system6. Different interactions of plants in the rhizosphere: Mechanisms and their ecological benefits7. Involvement of microbial species for plant growth promotion and disease suppression8. Cross talk of signalling molecules with microbes in plant cell9. Involvement of various signalling pathways in nanoparticle-microbe interactions in plants10. Mechanistic aspects of microbial synthesis of nanoparticles for plant-based applications11. Seed priming with nanomaterials and microbes and related growth mechanisms12. Exploring the antimicrobial capacity of different nanoparticles in pursuit of eradicating biotic stress13. Scope of virus-based nanoparticles as nanocarriers in agroecosystem14. Cell cycle regulations of plants under nano-microbe supplements15. Role of nanotherapeutics in agriculture16. Application of nanoparticles in precision agriculture17. Role of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria in reducing nanoparticles stress18. Genotoxicity of certain nanomaterials and their impact on plants and microbes19. Ecotoxicity aspects of microbially synthesized nanomaterials20. Development of nano-based sensors for mitigating plant stress: present status and future research