Top 10 plant pathologist of India

This presentation gives a birdeye view of the top 10 plant pathologist in INDIA.

1. Aspiring to be a future Phto -pathologists? Lets get inspired first by getting to know about The contribution of Top 10 Prominent Pathologist of INDIA Submitted by: Aishna Srivastava M.Sc. Plant Pathology

2. Sir Edwin John Butler 13 August 1874 – 4 April 1943 Irish My cologist   and  Pl ant pathologist . Father of Mycology and Plant Pathology in India. F irst director of the   Imperial Bureau of Mycology  in England.  In 1905 he became Imperial Mycologist at the  Imperial Agricultural Research Institute  at  Pusa .  He published monograph – “ Phythiaceous and allied fungi”, “The Fungi of India”, “Plant pathology”. Landmark book - Fungi and Disease in Plants: An Introduction to the Diseases of Field and Plantation Crops. Examined brown rot of potato in 1903. Discovered genus Allomyces . Reported Green ear disease of bajra in India .

3. Proff . Jehangir Faradunji Dastur  Born on September 10, 1886 at Bhavnagar.   He was elected First President of the Indian Phytopathological Society. First Assistant to the Imperial Mycologist (Dr. E. J. Butler) at Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa (Bihar).  1 st Indian Pathologist to do detailed study on fungi. Studied Phytopthora diseases in potato and castor.( 1915 and 1917) Known internationally for establishment of species Phytopthera parasitica in castor. D elivered the First Mundkur Memorial Lecture. Did creditable work as Mycologist to Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh) and made valuable contributions on cotton wilt, foot rot of betel, ripe rot of banana, stem breaking of cotton. pink disease of citrus, anthracnose etc.

4. Dr. Karam Chandra Mehta Father of Rust in India. Founder of Flowerdale station of DWR, Shimla. He made outstanding contribution to the disease cycle of rust in India. He was the first person to initiate on epidemiology of wheat rusts. He worked on recurrence of Black rust in the plains of India. He concluded that the infection (uredospore) spreads from Himalayas in the North and Nilgiri and Pallni hills in the south India. Also highlighted the prevalence and distribution of several races of wheat rusts in India. In his honour, the Newsletter “ Mehtaensis ” started in 1981. Published a monograph entitled “ Further studies on cereals rusts in India” in 1948. 1892- 1950

5. Dr. Makanji Kalyanji Patel, Father of Indian Phytopathology. Established School of Bacteriology at College of Agriculture, Pune. Obtained new species X. campestris p.v. uppali from Ipomea muricota . Described more than 50 bacterial diseases in plants. Established the cause of black spot of mango as Xanthomonas campestris p.v. magnifera indiceae . Dr. Patel was author or co-author of more than 140 scientific papers dealing with various plant diseases incited by bacteria and fungi.  His work on the crown-gall bacterium was of such high order that even to this day one of the differential media for isolating the pathogen is called 'Patel agar'.

6. Balchandra Bhavanishankar Mundkur In 1947 he founded the Indian Phytopathological Society and published “Indian phytopathology” in 1948.  He published   Fungi and Plant Diseases   in 1949 and a monograph on the  Ustilaginales of India  in 1952 apart from research papers. M ade a valuable scientific contribution on 'wilt disease' of cotton. Started systemic breeding for disease resistance. Appointed as mycologist in division of mycology in IARI, Pusa . Credit for identifying and classifying smut fungi in India. Wrote monographs in collaboration with Dr. M.J. Thirumalachar : 1. Ustilaginales of India 2.Supplements of Fungi of India 3.Genera of rusts

7. Toppur Seethapathy Sadasivan R esearch on the physiology of host pathogen relation­ship. M ade path breaking findings related to cotton wilt and rice blast diseases Demonstrated the fusaric acid production by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Vasinfectum . Worked out mechanism of wilting in cotton. His concepts included production of toxins and antibiotics in soil and in the rhizosphere of plants. His most remarkab le work was concept of vivotoxin . Excellent work on taxonomy of Hypomyce tes .

8. Govindachatty Rangaswami Studied Developed resistance to streptomycin in X.campestris p.v. citri and malavcearum . Studied Bacterial leaf spot of tomato, chillies , mungbean and gummosis of sugarcane. D eveloped an agricultural microbiology department and useful as well as harmful aspects of micro- organisms in agriculture. Working on the survival of plant pathogens in soil, he was able to isolate the chemical from  Bacillus  sp., which inhibited growth of  Alternaria solani ,  and was named ' Bulbiformin ’.  His Ph.D. thesis covered the discovery of a new antibiotic named 'Streptothricin' and its antifungal activities and also use of other antibiotics on plant disease control.   wrote the Monograph on Pythiaceous Fungi , which was published by the ICAR in 1963.  Books – 1. Bacterial Plant Disease in India (1962) 2. Diseases of crop plants in India (1972) 3. Bacterial plant pathology (1973)

9. Jeevan Prakash Verma Published more than 135 research papers and 16 books including a book on Bacterial Blight of Cotton published in 1986 by the CRC Press, Florida, U.S.A.  His major contribution was on Xanthomanas campestris pv . Malvacearum causing bacterial blight of cotton. Foundation cotton bacteriology. Reported role of thickness of bacterial cell wall in gram reaction. Books : 1. The Bacteria (1987) 2. Fundamentals of Plant Bacteriology (2001)

10. Dr. Yashwent Laxman Nene Solved the mystery of khaira disease of rice and established that it was caused by zinc deficiency. Discovered “wilt complex ” of chickpea (gram) and developed multiple-disease resistance-screening techniques and disease-resistant varieties of pulses. Books -“Fungicides in Plant Disease Control” and “The Pigeonpea ”, and an excellent pictorial bulletin “Tomato Disorders: Identification Handbook”. He established the Asian Agri-History Foundation Trust. His practical problem solving research earned him an FAO award in 1966. He described two viral disease in mungbean first time (leaf crinkle and leaf curl)

11. Mandayam Jeersannidhi Thirumalachar   He was known for the development of  antifungal   antibiotics  such as  Hamycin ,  Dermostatin ,  Aureofungin ,  MYc-4  and  Tetraenenin . H e established the presence of 30 new genera and 300 new species of fungi [1]  which included  Mundukurella  (named after his collaborator,  B. B. Mundkur ). Founders of  Mycological Society of India , served as its first vice president . Isolated new marine fungus Geotrichum marinum which uses ocean oil as source of C and N Conducted extensive study on smuts and rusts. Elected president of Indian phytopathological society (1956 & 1965).

12. Important books related to plant pathology

13. Vriksh Ayurveda – Surpala Enquiry into plants – Theopharastus De causis plantatrum and Historia Plantarum – Theopharastus Nova Plantarum Genera – P.A. Michille Species Plantarum – Carl Von Linneaus Synopsis Methodica Fungurom – C.H. Persoon Diseases of cultivated crop, their control and their management- Dr. J.G. Kuhn Morphology and physiology of fungi, lichen and myxomycetes- Anton De Bary Important Diseases of forest trees - Robert Hartig Principles of Fungicidal Action – J.H. Horsefall Principles of Plant Infection - Gaumann Plant Disease epidemics and control - Vanderplank Methods for study of pathogenic organism – Robert Koch Handbook on habitat , isolation and identification of bacteria – M.P.Stare Plant Disases due to bacteria – W.J. Dowson

14. 16. Outline of the History of Plant Pathology – Whetze l 17. The Advance of the Fungi- Large 18. Principles of Plant Disease Management – Fry 19. Fungal Spores - Ingold 20. Plant Disease Epidemiology - Nagarajan 21 . Biological Control of Crop Diseases – Gnanamanickam 22. Phytophthora Diseases World Wide - Erwin and Ribeiro 23. Phytophthora Diseases in India - Mehrotra and Aggarwal 24. The Physiology of the Wilt Disease- Sadasivan The Nature of Wilt Diseases of Plants - Mace and Beckman Hand Book of Plant Nematology - Singh and Sitaramaiah Environmental Injury to Plants- Katterman Nutrient Deficiencies and Toxicities in Crop Plants - Bennet

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