Plant-Associated Bacteria

The Editor, Sam Gnanamanickam, is a plant pathologist and a rice biotechnologist. He obtained his Ph.D degree in plant pathology from the University of Hawaii in 1976. On his return to India he took up a lecturer's position in plant pathology at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany of the University of Madras, India in 1978 and has moved up as Reader and Professor in the same Department. He has had postdoctoral training at Agriculture Canada (1980-82) and was a Visiting Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Philippines during 1987-89. He was associated with the International Rice Biotechnology net-work program supported by the Rockefeller Foundation for 10 years (1990-2000) which helped him to develop collaborative research with several advanced laboratories on molecular breeding of rice and biological control of rice diseases. He was accepted as an Adjunct Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Arizona in 2004 and was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi in 2005. His earlier book on Biological Control of Crop Diseases was published by Marcel Dekker, NY, 2002.

• Beneficial Bacteria.- Plant-associated bacteria: survey, molecular phylogeny, genomics and recent advances.- Rhizobium-legume symbioses: molecular signals elaborated by rhizobia that are important for nodulati.- Nitrogen-fixing bacteria in non-legumes.- Epiphytic bacteria, their ecology and functions.- Bacterial endophytes: The endophytic niche, its occupants, and its utility.- Rhizosphere Bacteria.- Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria.- Contribution of studies on suppressive soils to the identification of bacterial biocontrol agents and to the knowledge of their modes of action.- Root-associated bacteria inducing systemic resistance.- Rhizosphere competence and the role of root colonization in biocontrol.- Deleterious Rhizobacteria.- Plant Pathogenic Bacteria.- Agrobacterium biology and crown gall disease.- Clavibacter michiganensis, a group of gram-positive phytopathogenic bacteria.- The soft rot Erwinia.- Plant pathogenic Pseudomonas species.- Virulence functions of xanthomonads.- Plant pathogenic Ralstonia species.- Burkholderia.- Plant pathogenic members of the genera Acidovorax and Herbaspirillum.