Plant Mycobiome: Diversity, Interactions and Uses

Plant mycobiome represents a diverse array of plant-associated communities of endophytic and epiphytic fungi. These communities fundamentally affect plant health, development, adaptation, and communication with the surrounding ecosystem. Furthermore, they have key roles in the establishment, diversification, productivity, and sustainability of different natural ecosystems. However, some of these communities are pathogenic for the plant itself or dangerous for the consumers, due to the production of mycotoxins. In other words, plant mycobiome represents two faces of a coin.

This book aimed to explore contributions of the plant mycobiome in plant-environment interactions from different perspectives. Chapters of this book address numerous themes covering the recent advances in roles, diversity, and dynamics of these fungi as biocontrol agents, biofertilizers, growth promoters, and their secondary metabolites in the area of crop improvement for sustainability and biotechnology, aswell as the plant pathogenic and toxigenic fungi. This book will be useful to postgraduate students, botanists, mycologists, ecologists, plant pathologists, and physiologists.

Dr. Younes Rashad is an associate professor of Microbiology (Fungi) at Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis Department, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Egypt. He has got his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Egypt. He worked for 8 years at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Rashad’s research has influenced the field of plant-microbe interactions, in particular the biological control against fungal diseases of the vital crops, and mutualistic relationship of plants with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. His research interest extends to study and record the biodiversity of the seed-borne fungi to keep the fungal wealth and raise national awareness on the importance of conserving fungi. He has supervised a number of M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. He has published over 50 articles in high-impact journals, and 5 book chapters for Springer and Elsevier publishers. He awarded Prof. Abdelaal Moubasher’s Prize for Pioneer Scientists in Mycology Sciences (2019). He attended various international conferences and symposia on microbiology, plant pathology, and biotechnology. He has participated in many international funded projects in collaboration with UK universities. He has served as a reviewer for many international scientific journals. 

Prof. Zakaria Baka is a plant pathologist at Damietta University, Egypt. He has got his Ph.D. degree from the University of Sheffield (GB). He has published around 109 scientific papers and three books. He was a supervisor of 35 scientific M. Sc. and Ph.D. Theses. He was a reviewer of 465 scientific papers in local and international journals, 66 scientific theses and 6 scientific projects. He contributed to 9 research projects. He awarded 4 prizes in science. He is a member of 7 scientific societies. He visited the universities of Sheffield (GB), Bergen (Norway), and California (USA) as a postdoctoral fellowship. He attended 40 local and international conferences, workshops, training courses and symposia. 

Dr. Tarek Moussa is a professor of Microbiology (ecological mycology and mycoparasitism) at Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University. He was also appointed as a professor at universities in Egypt, Austria, Libya and Saudi Arabia. He was the principal investigator for many international collaborations with England and The Netherlands. He supervised on about 30 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. Areas of interest are taxonomy, ecology and evolution of fungi, with emphasis on possible lines of adaptation to the human host. He has published over 85 scientific papers, in addition to sharing in organization of some symposia on microbiology. He attended many workshops on black yeasts, microbial biotechnology and fungal genomics. He is associated editor and reviewer of many scientific and peer reviewed journals.