Maria F Fillat Editor

Dr. Prashant Kumar Singh is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, Pachhunga University College, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram. He completed his Ph.D. degree from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. In his 14 years of research carrier, he has published more than 50 articles and book chapters and one book related to cyanobacteria and plant molecular biology. Dr. Singh also has exposure to various national and international institutes. Dr. Singh is also awarded by the Young Scientist Award and lifetime members of various scientific societies as well as reviewer of various peer reviewed journals. Dr. María F. Fillat is full professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology (University of Zaragoza) and leader of the group “Genetic regulation and physiology of cyanobacteria”. During the last decades her work has focused on the functional characterization of the FUR (ferric uptake regulator) proteins in cyanobacteria, including their regulation, participation in regulatory networks, their relationship with redox homeostasis and their role in the synthesis of cytotoxic microcystin. She completed her PhD in Sciences at the University of Zaragoza and worked as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands). She also visited other laboratories at the University of Konstanz (Germany), Emory University (Atlanta, GA), Universidad de Rosario (Argentina), IBVF (Sevilla), and the University of Gèneve. Prof. Maria F. Fillat has published more than 100 research articles in international refereed journals and holds two patents. Her group has received several awards from the Economic and Social Council (Government of Aragón), the “Instituto de Estudios Turolenses” and the Royal Academy of Sciences of Zaragoza. She led 13 research projects and 6 contracts with companies as a Principal Investigator (PI) and successfully organized 9 international and 3 national scientific meetings. Prof. Fillat has also supervised 10 PhD theses (3 more are in progress), 9 Diploma theses, and 13 Master projects. She has also participated in 4 teaching innovation projects, two of them as PI. Dr. Ajay Kumar is a visiting scientist at the Agriculture Research Organization, Volcani center, Rishon Leziyon, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development Israel. He has published extensively in leading International and National journals or books. He has wide area of research experience, especially in the field of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Microbial biocontrol, and Endophytes related with the medicinal plants, Postharvest management of fruits. Dr. Kumar has published more than 165 research articles including review papers/book chapters/ books in the leading international journals. He is serving as special issue editors in some journals like “Frontiers in Microbiology, Microorganism” etc. In addition also acting as reviewer in some leading journals like Frontiers group, PLOS ONE, Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Biological Control, Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 3Biotech etc. Dr, Kumar has edited several books with leading publishers including Elsevier, Springer, and Taylor and Francis.