Prof. K. S. Sastry, Ph.D., is a plant virologist at Indo-American Hybrid Seeds (India) Pvt. Ltd. , Channasandra Village, Bangalore 560 061 (India). He obtained his M.Sc. (Botany) and Ph.D. (Botany) with plant virology specialization in 1966 and 1973, respectively, from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati (India). He joined Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) as a scientist (Plant Virology) during the year 1971 and retired in 1999. He has served at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta, Bangalore 560 089, Karnataka, and also at Directorate of Oil Seeds Research, Hyderabad 500 080, Andhra Pradesh. Prof. Sastry’s research has been primarily on epidemiology and management of virus and virus-like diseases of Horticultural and Oil Seed crops. He has done pioneer research on Begomoviruses of Tomato and Okra. He has research experience in molecular and biotechnological approaches for characterization and control of viral diseases of horticultural crop plants. Further, he has also published over 120 research papers both in national and international journals. He has also published “Compendium of the Plant Virus Research in India (1903-2008)” having 8652 plant virus references that is considered as one of the rich sources of information for Indian plant virus research.
