Salinity and Drought Tolerance in Plants

Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Senior Scientist (Plant Physiology), has been working on various aspects of Crop Improvement for salt affected areas through institutional and externally funded research projects at ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal. He has made significant contributions for studying the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of different crop plants in varying environments of salinity and drought. His scientific efficiency can be evaluated based on his association in inter-divisional/inter-institutional research programs with funding of more than 3 crores from different agencies. The Google Scholar Citation of 1354 with h-index of 20 depicts scientific output in the form of more than 50 peer-reviewed research papers, 15 book chapters, 15 popular articles, 4 technical bulletins and 9 training manuals, success stories etc. along with teaching experience of more than 10 years. Dr. Pooja Dhansu, Senior Scientist (Plant Physiology), has been working on various aspects of Sugarcane Improvement through institutional and externally funded research projects at ICAR-SBI, Regional Center, Karnal. She has made significant contributions for preservation of ready to serve sugarcane juice that had the shelf life of 30 days without preservatives and 90 days with addition of preservatives. In addition, she has been working on physiological and biochemical mechanisms of sugarcane clones in varying environments of salinity and drought. She has also received funding of more than 3.5 crore from various agencies. She has published more than 25 peer-reviewed research papers, 10 book chapters, 10 popular articles, 6 technical bulletins and 8 training manuals, success stories etc along with research guiding experience of more than 10 years to M.Sc. and Ph.D. students.Dr. Anita Mann, Principal Scientist (Plant Physiology), is working on molecular plant physiology under abiotic stress in different crop plants. She has been working on gene identification from salt tolerant halophytes through transcriptomics and transformation of important gene(s) for salt tolerance in rice for enhanced salt tolerance. Simultaneously, she has been associated in identifying the salt tolerance in chickpea, pomegranate, okra, tomato etc. through physiological, biochemical, molecular and breeding approaches. She has also been awarded research fellowship from CSIR and Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi. She has published more than 60 research papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals including book chapters, general articles, bulletins etc. She has been guiding M.Sc. and Ph.D. students of Plant Physiology, Plant Biotechnology, Soil Science, Agroforestry etc.

• Chapter 1. Occurrence of salinity and drought stresses: status, impact and management.- Chapter 2. Multiple stresses is a big challenge for development of tolerant varieties: Shared and unique physiological responses.- Chapter 3. Physio-biochemical approaches for raising drought tolerance in plants: Recent progress and future perspectives.- Chapter 4. Physiological, biochemical and molecular responses to salt stress and seed priming approach to enhance salt tolerance in bread wheat.- Chapter 5. Drought and salinity stress: an overlapping osmotic resistance.- Chapter 6. Physiological and Post-Harvest Quality Changes of Horticultural Crops under salt stress.- Chapter 7. Conventional Breeding and Advance Approaches to Mitigate Drought and Salt Stress in Crop Plants.- Chapter 8. Strategies for improving tolerance to combined effect of drought and salinity stress in crops.- Chapter 9. Stress protectants in amelioration of abiotic stress: mechanism of action and potential role in sustainingoilseed and pulses productivity.- Chapter 10. Insights into drought and salinity stress tolerance in crop plant through various genomic approaches under changing climate.- Chapter 11. Strategies to improve drought and salinity tolerance in some cash crops through proteomics perspective.- Chapter 12. Insights in metabolomics responses to drought and salinity stress in crop plants.- Chapter 13. Transcriptional Regulatory Network Involved in Drought and Salt Stress Response in Rice.- Chapter 14. Advancement of omics approaches in understanding the mechanism of salinity tolerance in legumes.- Chapter 15. Speed Breeding: A budding technique to improve crop plants for drought and salinity tolerance.