Microbes and Plants: Molecular Dynamics and Sustainable Applications

This book examines the role of cyanobacteria and plant-microbe interactions in promoting sustainability and resilience to abiotic stress. It emphasizes the ecological and functional importance of cyanobacteria in diverse environments, including their contributions to UV protection, soil fertility, and the development of natural sunscreens. Additionally, it highlights the biomedical potential of cyanobacterial compounds and their adaptive mechanisms under varying environmental conditions. The book also examines light signaling mechanisms in cyanobacteria and higher plants, focusing on chromatic acclimation, blue light-mediated responses, and ribosomal subunit assembly, providing valuable insights into their functions in growth, development, and potential antimicrobial targets. Additionally, it explores the complex interactions between plants and microbial communities, highlighting their contributions to improving plant growth, enhancing disease resistance, and producing bioactive compounds through endophytic and rhizosphere associations.Key Features: Investigates the ecological significance and biotechnological potential of cyanobacteria in UV protection, enhancing soil fertility, and developing biomedical applications. Focuses on adaptive mechanisms and bioactive molecules in cyanobacteria and other microbes, and plants that promote sustainability and resilience to environmental stresses. Analyzes plant-microbe relationships, including endophytes and rhizosphere microorganisms, and their roles in plant growth, disease resistance, and nutrient acquisition. Explores light signaling pathways in cyanobacteria and plants, with an emphasis on chromatic acclimation and photoreceptive responses driving development and adaptation Explores the potential of medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds in combating chronic diseases and advancing healthcare. This book is useful for researchers and students of microbiology, plant sciences, and biotechnology.

About the Author

Rajeshwar P. Sinha , a DAAD Fellowship Awardee and Fellow of the Society for Applied Biotechnology, India, is a Senior Professor of Molecular Biology in the Department of Botany at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. His research spans physiological, biochemical, molecular, nanobiotechnological, and computational biology aspects of cyanobacteria. His primary focus includes studying the impacts of UV-B radiation on DNA damage and repair, as well as investigating Phycobiliproteins, Mycosporine-like amino acids, and Scytonemin. He has published over 585 research papers, reviews, book chapters, and conference proceedings and has edited or authored 15 books. Dr. Sinha is a lifetime member of several national and international scientific societies and serves on the editorial boards of various renowned journals. He is among the top 2% most cited scientist in the world with more than 20000 citations, an h-index of 65 and i10-index of 192.

Shailendra P. Singh is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Biology at Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and worked as an exchange visitor scientist at the Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, USA. Before joining BHU, Dr. Singh served as a senior scientist at Algae to Oil (A2O), Reliance Industries, Mumbai, India. He has been awarded the Early Career Research Award by DST-SERB and the UGC-BSR startup grant, along with the Young Photobiologist Fellowship by the European Society for Photobiology and the Kadner Institute Program Fellowship by the American Society for Microbiology. He currently serves as a global outreach member of the American Society for Microbiology and is on the editorial boards of several international journals. Dr.Singh's research interests include photoperception and photoprotection, photomorphogenesis, microbial sunscreen genetics, synthetic biology, DNA damage, oxidative stress, photosynthesis, carbon-concentrating mechanisms, and chromatic acclimation in cyanobacteria. His work has resulted in the publication of more than 100 research papers, reviews, patents, book chapters, and conference proceedings. He has more than 4600 citations with an h-index of 31 and i10-index of 54.

Satish K. Verma has been serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi. He earned his Ph.D. in Botany, specializing in the diversity and secondary metabolites of fungal endophytes, from BHU. Prior to this, he also served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, India. Dr. Verma's primary area of research is plant-microbe interactions, with a current focus on seed-vectored microbes and their roles in protecting plants from diseases and enhancing nutrient uptake in crops. His recent findings have demonstrated the significant roles of seed-vectored microbes in modulating early seedling development and providing protection against fungal pathogens. He is also actively researching the discovery of antimicrobial metabolites from fungi to combat multidrug-resistant human pathogens. His broader research interests include plant microbiomes, endophyte ecology, and their influence on plant growth and disease resistance. He was awarded the prestigious Raman Post-Doctoral Fellowship to visit the Department of Plant Biology at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA (2016-2017). Recently, he was also awarded the SIRE Fellowship to work at the Bioresource Center, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Austria (2023-2024), focusing on the diversity and functional roles of endofungal bacteria. Dr. Verma has published 50 research papers in reputed scientific journals, contributed 14 book chapters, and co-edited a book.