Next-Generation Plant Breeding Approaches for Stress Resilience in Cereal Crops

Dr. S. Chandra Nayaka is an agricultural biotechnologist specialized in the application of biotechnological tools in plant protection, pathogen detection, and plant-pathogen interaction. He is serving as principal investigator of ICAR-AICRP on Pearl Millet and is a professor at the University of Mysore. He has 20 years of experience in research, including visiting scientist at the Danish Government Institute of Seed Pathology, Denmark, and China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. His main activities pertain to pathogen biology, host-pathogen interaction, epidemiology, and disease management. His group has pioneered full-length genome sequencing of highly virulent strain of the biotrophic pathogen Sclerospora graminicola. He is a recipient of the Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers and The Millennium Plaques Honor by the Indian Science CongressAssociation. He holds 4 national patents and has published more than 100 research articles, 08 books, 15 book chapters, 03 application notes, and six technical bulletins. Additionally, he regularly guides postdoc fellows and research scholars.

Dr. Tanushri Kaul is a renowned senior scientist and group leader, specialized in plant molecular biotechnology at ICGEB, New Delhi, with pioneering work in nutritional improvement of crops via CRISPR gene editing. She has been awarded DBT-IISc-Post Doctoral Fellowship, Indo-Israel; Indo-German-DST Research Associateship, RGYI-Award; BIOCARE-DBT grant cum fellowship; ASEAN Biotech Award Malaysia; and Global Certificate Course on Data Science & AI. She has significantly contributed to the field of plant molecular biology and biotechnology for 20 years of her research career. She developed phytase-rich tomatoes, wheat grains with low phytic acid, herbicide-resistant maize and rice, and iron and zinc enriched rice. She spearheaded the whole genome sequencing and transcriptomics of rice bean and saffron. She has received four patents for her exceptionally innovative research contribution in the scientific community. She has over 70 publications in international journals, book chapters, and articles. Moreover, she has frequently guided international and national postdoctoral fellows, predoctoral fellows, and MSc students.