Brief Introduction

Positions Held:

• Scientist S-1, (Plant Pathology) (1978-1983), Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack - 753 006

• Scientist S-2, (Plant Pathology) (1984-1985), Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack - 753 006
  

• Senior Scientist, (Plant Pathology) (1986-1998), Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110 012
  

• Principal Scientist, (Plant Pathology) (1998-till date), Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi - 110 012

Awarded:

• State Merit Scholarship, 1974-1975

• ICAR Senior Fellowship, 1977-1978

• French Government Scholarship, 1983-1984

• DBT Overseas Associateship, 1997-1998

• Received IARI Gold Medal for meritorious work during Ph.D programme

• Received IARI Best Teacher Award 2004 in Plant Pathology

• * Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)

• Fellow, the Indian Phytopathological Society

• * Zonal Counsellor (Delhi Zone), the Indian Phytopathological Society, 1994

• * Editor, Indian Phytopathology (1998-2003)

• * Editor, Indian Journal of Virology (2005-till date)

Research Area:

1. Current Research Interests: Identification, molecular characterization and management of Poty-, Ilar- and Tospo-viruses affecting fruits, legumes, sunflower, and vegetables.
   
   

2. Research:

   1. Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack (1978-84): Attention was focussed on applied aspects of two major diseases of rice, namely, bacterial blight (BB) and bacterial leaf streak (BLS). The significant achievements that have emanated are:

      • identification of breeding lines possessing durable resistance to BB with high yield potential

      • identification of factors influencing disease build up

      • working out a correlation between foliage infection and seed infection of BB

   2. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (1984- ): A wide range of plant viruses posing threat to many important crops were characterized with a view to develop biotechnological diagnostic probes and formulate management strategies. The major accomplishments include:

      • identification of Tobacco streak ilarvirus (TSV) as the causal agent of sunflower necrosis disease.

      • identification of a distinct tospovirus species, Groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV) affecting leguminous and solanaceous hosts and Watermelon bud necrosis virus (WBNV) affecting watermelon and other cucurbits on the basis of comparative nucleocapsid (NP) protein and movement protein (NSm) genes sequence homology.

      • confirmation of the natural occurrence of Sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV) and an elongated virus like particles (1800-2000 nm) on sweet potato.

      • identification of Henbane mosaic virus (HMV), Potato virus Y (PVY), Soybean mosaic virus (SbMV) and Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) using N-terminal serology, HPLC peptide profiling and amino acid sequencing.

      • molecular chracterization of several Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) isolates from various parts of India, a serious pathogen of papaya and cucurbits.

      • genetic fingerprinting of several Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) isolates infecting peanut, tobacco and vegetables.

      • production of polyclonal antisera against Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic (CABMV), GBNV, HMV, PVY, PRSV, peanut stripe (PStV), rice tungro spherical (RTSV) and bacilliform (RTBV), sugarcane mosaic (SCMV) and tobacco streak (TSV) viruses and standardisation of immunodiagnostic procedures, such as ELISA, Western blots and ISEM.

      • development of a rapid and sensitive immunocapature RT-PCR procedure for diagnosis of TSWV infection of peanut and other crops.

Contributions to Agri./Hort. literature: More than 75, Studies on a number of important plant viruses have been described in over 60 refereed research papers as well as invited reviews or book chapters and over 15 abstracts in seminar and symposium presentations.