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.

• Physiology1. Physiological adaptation of plants to abiotic stresses2. Modulation of physiology in plants through osmolytes application3. Studying the physiology of genetically modified crop plants4. Root traits and water relations in plants under stresses5. Role of soil microbes in modulating the physiological attributes of plants under extreme environmental conditions6. Morphological modulations in plants exposed to abiotic and biotic stresses7. Physiological modulations/ adaptations of plants for improved mineral nutrition under stresses8. Regulation of photosynthesis under stress9. Water relation, photosynthesis and plant growth10. Modification of physiological attributes by nano-fertilizes attributes for improved stress tolerance11. Physiological modification in plants under fungicide and pesticide stressBiochemistry12. Modulation of plant biochemistry through excess use of fungicides and herbicides in plants13. Enzyme functioning and environmental stresses14. Plant nitrogen metabolism: effects of stresses and the mitigating role of mineral elements and phytohormones15. Plant nitrogen metabolism: effects of stresses and the mitigating role of compatible osmolytes16. Modulation of sulphur metabolism in plants under stress conditions: role of mineral elements17. Sulphur metabolism and phytohormones interactions in plants under stress18. Antioxidant system: role and regulation under environmental stresses vis-à-vis mineral nutrition19. Understanding the role of plant growth regulators as key players in stress signalling20. Role of phytohormones in improving stress tolerance: Focus on the antioxidant system21. Understanding the role of thiols in stress biology of crop plants22. Ascorbate-Glutathione Pathway: abiotic stress tolerance in plants and modulations by exogenous osmo-protectants23. Photosynthesis: role of antioxidant system and glyoxylase system24. Reactive oxygen species production: production. Signalling, and antioxidant and glyoxylase defence systems25. Understanding the biochemical basis of stress signalling in plants26. Breeding and Plant Stress Tolerance27. Integrated approaches of "omics" for the improvement of stress tolerance in plants28. Understanding the regulatory mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in plants by using genomic approaches29. Prognosis for genetic improvement of yield potential of major grain crops under environmental stress30. Genotypic variation for stress tolerance in legume crops31. Genomics-assisted breeding for the development of stress tolerant crop varieties32. Marker assisted selection in plant breeding for stress tolerance33. Recent advances in plant breeding for the improvement of plant stress tolerance: Prospects and limitations34. QTLs for stress tolerance in plants35. CRISPR gene editing and stress tolerance36. Genetic approaches for tolerance to multiple stresses