Background and goal: The average global earth

surface temperature has increased from the pre-

industrial era and is poised to increase even further

and rapidly, in the near future. The increase in

temperature is accompanied by other climate

stressors, most conspicuously, by drought and

salinization, and increased incidence of pest and

diseases. Many of these climate stressors threaten

plants, both crops and those in natural communities

and in recent past have attracted considerable

attention. A significant omission in many of these

considerations however, has been the probable role

of microbiome, especially of endophytes, in aiding

plant adaptation to climate change. Endophytes,

bacteria and fungi, are present ubiquitously in

plants, and live either as mutualists or commensals

in their host plants. While their evolutionary origins

are not clear, there is ample evidence to the fact that

endophytes have overarching influence on plant

physiological processes, growth and development,

including in modulating plant responses to abiotic

and biotic stressors. These studies have opened up

exciting opportunities and a rich conceptual

framework to explore how endophytes might be able

to fast-track plant adaptations to climate stressors,

in agricultural crop plants and by extrapolation, in

natural plant communities. To address these

opportunities and conceptual framework, this

Online Seminar (Webinar) on “Endophytes and

Climate Resilience” is being organized. Participants

will have an opportunity to listen into cutting edge

lectures that dwell on how endophytes tune host

plant’s responses, from theoretical to empirical. The

seminar would comprise of specific talks, with Q&A

session.

Speakers

R. Sukumar

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,

India

T. Samraat Pawar

Imperial College, London, UK.

T. S. Suryanarayanan

VINSTROM, Chennai, India

R. Uma Shaanker

University of Agricultural Sciences,

GKVK, Bangalore, India

Lynne Boddy

Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff,

UK

Moderated by

Nataraja Karaba, N., University of Agricultural

Sciences, Bangalore

Sponsored by

ICAR-NAHEP under

Centre for Advanced Agricultural Science &

Technology (CAAST) programme – Activity 1C

(NGT for Microbiome enabled seed priming)

12 June 2020 10.45 am IST

Center for Next Generation Technologies in Adaptive Agriculture

University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore

Webinar on

Endophytes and Climate Resilience in Plants

Click to know the schedule of events

Click here for free registration!

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Webinar on

Endophytes and Climate Resilience in Plants Friday, 12.06.2020

Schedule of Events

Inauguration (via video clips) _ 10:45 – 11:00 am (IST)

Time (IST) Speaker Title

11.00–11.30 R. Sukumar Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

Climate change and tropical forest resilience

11.40 -12.10 T. Samraat Pawar Imperial College, London, UK.

The effects of temperature fluctuations on microbiome structure and functioning

12.20 -12.50 T. S. Suryanarayanan, VINSTROM, Chennai, India

Climate change: how the fungi would fare?

BREAK

13.30-14.00 R. Uma Shaanker, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore, India

Can endophytes fast track plant adaptation to climate change ?

14.10-14.40 Lynne Boddy Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff, UK

Climate change effects on forest fungi

14.50-15.10 Webinar Moderator Dr. Nataraja Karaba N UAS, GKVK, Bangalore, India

Interaction Session with audience and conclusion

Organizing Committee

S. Rajendra Prasad, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India

Prabhat Kumar, ICAR-CAAST, NAHEP, New Delhi, India

Nataraja Karaba, N., University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India

T. S. Suryanarayanan, VINSTROM, Chennai, India

Convener and Webinar Moderator

Nataraja Karaba, N., University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India

Webinar Post-Production Editing Committee

Nataraja Karaba, N., University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India

T. S. Suryanarayanan, VINSTROM, Chennai, India

N. Earanna University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India

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Dr. R. Sukumar

Climate change and tropical forest resilience

Raman Sukumar is a Professor at the Center of Ecological Sciences,

Bangalore, India. He obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of

Science in 1985. His research interest is on climate change and tropical

forest ecology. He is an elected Fellow of Indian National Science

Academy and J. C. Bose National Fellow of the Department of Science

and Technology, Government of India. He received Commendation by

the Prime Minister of India for contributions to the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared the Nobel Peace Prize, (2007). He continues to

pursue conservation-based scientific research as a Professor and is often called upon to

represent Indian wildlife scientists in international, national and regional governmental

committees.

Dr. T. Samraat Pawar The effects of temperature fluctuations on microbiome structure and functioning

Samraat Pawar is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Theoretical Ecology in

the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London. He obtained

his PhD in Integrative Biology from the University of Texas at Austin, and

went on to do postdoctoral research in the Department of Biomathematics

at the University of California Los Angeles, and Department of Zoology at

the University of Chicago, before starting his current position at Imperial

College. His research focuses on scaling up metabolic constraints on individuals to the

dynamics and functioning of complex ecosystems. He is particularly interested in applying

ecological metabolic theory to the functional stability of microbial ecosystems.

Dr. T. S. Suryanarayanan Climate change: how the fungi would fare?

Suryanarayanan has pioneered the study of endophytic fungi for their

diversity and technological potential. He has studied endophytes of

mangroves, forest trees, desert plants, seaweeds, and sea grasses. His

work for the past 40 years proves the host expansion of endophyte

species, the importance of environment in recruiting endophytes by

plant hosts and the switching over of endophytes to a saprotrophic mode

of lifestyle in shed leaves. His recent studies have revealed that endophytes produce unique

biomass degrading enzymes which are ionic liquid tolerant. He reported that endophytes of

fire prone forests utilize toxic furaldehydes as a carbon source and produce highly

thermotolerant spores. These results have a bearing on the biology of fungi in the context of

climate change.

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Dr. Uma Shaanker Can endophytes fast track plant adaptation to climate change?

Uma Shaanker is a former Professor and Head, Department of Crop

Physiology and School of Ecology and Conservation, University of

Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore. He is currently an ICAR

Emeritus Scientist at UAS, Bangalore. He is an elected Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. He was a Fulbright Fellow

and a Visiting Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and

an Honorary Fellow of the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced

Scientific Research, Bangalore. He is one of the founder trustees and

Senior Fellow of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),

Bangalore. Uma Shaanker’s major research interests are in the areas of plant evolutionary

biology, conservation genetics, plant secondary metabolites and bioprospecting.

Dr. Lynne Boddy Climate change effects on forest fungi

Lynne Boddy has researched the ecology of wood decomposition for

40 years, including rates and processes, role in terrestrial ecosystem

functioning, and the synecology and autecology of decomposer

organisms. She has pioneered work on fungal community structure

and the decomposition dynamics of twigs, branches and trunks of

attached, standing, felled and fallen wood. She has investigated

fungal interactions in artificial and more natural conditions, and how

they are affected by biotic and abiotic factors. This information has been used to explain

patterns of fungal community structure and development. Recent work on transcriptomics,

gene expression, and production of volatile and diffusible organic compounds during

mycelial interactions has considerably deepened understanding of fungal interactions. Her

work has also revealed the foraging ecology and key roles of cord-forming basidiomycetes,

and made major advances in understanding the effects of invertebrate grazing on fungal

foraging, communities and nutrient release, and on chemical attraction. Climate change

research has revealed major changes in fungal fruiting phenology, implying major changes

in mycelial activity crucial to ecosystem functioning.