Fungi Bio-prospects in Sustainable Agriculture, Environment and Nano-technology

Dr.V.K. Sharma has a Ph.D. in Botany from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, U.P., India. He has more than eleven years of research experience, particularly in the area of endophytes. His research interest is in the bio-potential applications of endophytes and their mechanism. He also has a keen interest in emerging environmental issues and mitigation. He is currently working on the role of fungal endophytes in heavy metal stress tolerance of host plants, and mechanism. Dr. Sharma has more than thirty research articles and book chapters in journals of national and international repute to his credit. He is lifetime member of Mycological Society of India (MSI). He is also the recipient of MJ Thirumalachar Young Scientist Award Lectures by MSI in 2016. He also received Yunnan provincial government funding-II. He has also actively participated in many national and international conferences, symposia and workshops related to his research field Dr. Maulin P. Shah is an active researcher and microbial biotechnologist with diverse research interest. His primary interest is the environment, the quality of our living resources and the ways that bacteria can help to manage and degrade toxic wastes and restore environmental health. Consequently, His work has been focused to assess the impact of industrial pollution on microbial diversity of wastewater following cultivation dependant and cultivation independent analysis.Dr. Parmar has a Ph.D. in Environment Science from from Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India. She has more than eight years of research experience, particularly in the area of toxic metal pollution of water bodies and soil, their phytoremediation, bio-prospects of endophytes in host plant growth enhancement and stress tolerance, and the mechanism. She has about 12 publications in journals and edited book of international repute such as Microbial Biotechnology and Elsevier. Recently she was awarded by the Yunnan provincial government, funding-II in China. Dr. Ajay Kumar is currently working as an assistant professor at Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India. Dr. Kumar completed his tenure (2018-2022) as a visiting scientist from Agriculture Research Organization, Volcani Center, Israel and doctoral research from Department of Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India on the theme "Plant microbe interaction". In his research tenures, Dr. Kumar has published more than 235 scientific contributions in the form of research and review articles, books or book chapters with the leading International Journals or Publishers. He has wide area of research experience, especially in the field of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Microbial biocontrol, Postharvest management of fruits, Microbial endophytes related with the medicinal plants and cyanobacteria-pesticides interactions. Dr. Kumar actively engaged in editing book with the leading publisher like Elsevier, Springer, CRC Press, Willey and edited more than 48 books and currently serving as an Associate editor in Frontier in Microbiology, BMC Microbiology and special guest editor in Microorganisms or Plants MDPI, Journal.

• 1. Fungal metabolites: a source of bioactive natural products2. Endophytic and marine fungi are potential source of antioxidants3. Bioactive compounds from marine-derived fungi and their potential applications4. Marine endophytic fungi isolated from Gulf of Mannar—A source for new generation of pharmaceutical drugs and biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles and its antibacterial efficacy5. Pullulan: a bioactive fungal exopolysaccharide with broad spectrum of applications for human welfare6. Applications of biomolecules of endophytic fungal origin and its future prospect7. Microbial metabolites: as sources of green dye8. Fungal endophytes as a potential source of therapeutically important metabolites9. Prevention and control of mycotoxins for food safety and security of human and animal feed10. Food safety concern related to aflatoxins and control11. Role of the endogenous fungal metabolites in the plant growth improvement and stress tolerance12. Recent trends in fungal biosynthesis of nanoparticles13. Role of fungi in bio-production of nanomaterials at megascale14. Mycogenic fabrication of nanoparticles and their applications in modern agricultural practices & food industries15. Role of fungal endophytes in the green synthesis of nanoparticles and the mechanism16. Fungal infections: advances in diagnosis and treatment17. CRISPR-Cas9 system for functional genomics of filamentous fungi: applications and challenges