Diversity and Biotechnology of Extremophilic Microorganisms from India

This authored book collates information on extremophilic microorganisms from around the world with special emphasis on India. The main focus of this book is to describe extreme environments as the habitats of these microorganisms, mechanisms of the extremophiles to cope up with the surrounding environment, new taxa created, their physiological properties, their biotechnological potential in the production of different biomolecules and biomaterials, and their role in sustainability. The concept of the book is to have comprehensive information on the diversity of microorganisms in one place. The purpose of the present book is to make aware young researchers of the attempts made so far to isolate these different microbes, inspire them to revisit the extreme environments, investigate their biodiversity using advanced molecular techniques and explore further their biotechnological potential. This book is of interest to post-graduate students, young researchers of India as well as other countries. It is useful reading material for researchers involved in environmental microbiology, microbial diversity, microbial systematics, microbial culture collections, molecular taxonomy, and microbial biotechnology.

About the Author

Dr. Pradnya Pralhad Kanekar after joining MACS-Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra, India, in 1974, completed Ph. D. in Microbiology of University of Pune, in 1980. She has worked as a Scientist, Acting Director (2009-2010) and retired as Scientist G in 2011. Her research areas include Bioremediation, Microbial Diversity and Biotechnology and Extremophilic microorganisms. She has 85 research papers, five Indian Patents, 17 book chapters, two edited books, 25 papers in Proceedings and over 125 papers presented in Conferences, to her credit. She has successfully guided 16 Ph. D. students in Microbiology of Pune University and implemented 16 sponsored projects. She has visited seven countries. She was awarded CSIR Emeritus Scientist scheme, Govt. of India (2013-2017). She has been honored with Life Fellow Awards, and President/Convener of Pune Branches of various Scientific Organizations. She is working as an expert consultant in Microbiology department at Hydrotech laboratory, Pune.

Dr. Sagar Pralhad Kanekar has been working as a Microbiologist at Hydrotech Laboratory, a Water and Food Testing Laboratory, Pune, Maharashtra, India, since 2016. After completing M.Sc. in Microbiology of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), Pune, he joined MACS-Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, as a Research Student in 2008. He was awarded CSIR Senior Research Fellowship, Govt. of India (2011-2014) and Ph. D. in Microbiology of SPPU, Pune in 2015. He presented his work on Halophiles from Andaman Islands, India, in International Conference on Halophiles in Connecticut, USA, in 2013.  He was assistant professor at Biotechnology department and B. Voc. Food Processing Technology at Modern college Ganeshkhind, Pune, Maharashtra (2015-2016). He has two research papers, six book chapters, eight papers presented in Conferences, to his credit.