Host Adaptation, Virulence, and Evolution

• Presents the latest developments and progress on microbial genome and metagenome research and findings
• Assesses the advancements in the study of microbial virulence gene function, adaptation, and infectious pathogen evolution
• Provides insights about the progress and prospect of microbial genome editing

Javid A Parray is currently teaching at the Department of Environmental Science, GDC Eidgah, affiliated to Cluster University, Srinagar. His research interests include ecological and agricultural microbiology, climate change, microbial biotechnology, and environmental microbiomes. He has also done his Post Doctorate Research from the University of Kashmir. Dr Parray was also awarded a Fast Track Young Scientist Project by SERB – DST, GoI New Delhi. Dr Javid was also awarded as “Emerging scientist year Gold Medal” for the year 2018 by Indian Academy of Environmental Science. Dr Parray is the course coordinator for the UG- Programmes for CeC-MOOCS Swayam in Environmental Science. Dr Parray is an expert review member in the field of environmental science in the CSTT, Ministry of Education, GoI New Delhi.

Niraj Singh holds a master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Technology and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from Tezpur University, Assam. He has qualified for numerous national and state-level exams in Life Sciences and Biotechnology, enabling him to pursue research at central universities and institutes. After his PhD, he began teaching at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, and currently serves as an Assistant Professor and Coordinator at the Department of Microbiology, Assam Royal Global University, Guwahati. His research focuses on virulence gene functions, crop disease control, and Ralstonia solanacearum bacterial wilt, for which he was awarded a Hayward-Prior travel grant in 2020. He has previously disseminated his research in journals articles, book chapters, and a volume published by Springer. He has also received a Young Scientist Award, a Young Plant Pathologist Award, and a Certificate of Appreciation at the Gujrat Vigyan Sammelan in 2022.

Wen-Jun Li received his PhD in microbiology from Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is currently working as Distinguished Professor in School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. His research mainly focuses on microbial diversity under those unusual environments, by using culture-dependent and culture-independent methods, as well as mechanisms of extremophilic microbes to adapt those unusual environments. He was awarded the WFCC (The World Federation for Culture Collections) Skerman award for microbial taxonomy in 2007, and other six provincial and ministry level awards for his outstanding research contributions on the field of microbial systematics and microbial ecology. He has successfully trained more than 150 graduate students and postdoc level students in the field of microbial taxonomy and microbial ecology at home and abroad countries.