The book is a compilation of research work carried out on plant viruses during past 100 years in India. Plant viruses are important constraints in Indian agriculture. Tropical and sub-tropical environments and intensive crop cultivation practices ideally favours perpetuation of numerous plant viruses and their vectors in India, which often cause wide spread crop losses. Of all the plant pathogens, studies of plant viruses have received a special attention as they are difficult to manage. A large body of literature has been published on the plant virus research from India during past 100 years; however the information is so far not available in one place. This book provides comprehensive information on the biology, molecular biology, epidemics, crop losses, diagnosis and management of viruses and viroids occurring in India. Description of properties of the viruses are provided in the chapters comprising of  different genera such as Allexivirus, Begomovirus, Babuvirus, Badnavirus, Carlavirus, Carmovirus, Cucumovirus, Closterovirus, Ilavirus, Mandrivirus, Potyvirus, Tospovirus, Tungrovirus and Sobemovirus. Virus-vector research related to aphid, thrips and whitefly is discussed. The work on the management aspects of plant viral diseases has been described with reference to the conventional, antiviral and transgenic approaches. Further, the quarantine mechanism developed in India for the exclusion of viruses and vectors has also been included. The book also provides useful information about the capacity building on the research and education on Plant Virology in India. Overall, the book covers a wide range of accounts of research findings and innovations in Plant Virology in India during past 100 years. The book will be a resourceful reference to the students, scientists, agricultural professionals and policy makers.

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Dr. Bikash Mandal is a Principal Scientist in the Advanced Centre for Plant Virology, Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. His major research areas are molecular characterization of plant viruses, diagnosis and application of plant virus genome as useful genetic resource. Dr. Mandal has a total of 86 peer-reviewed research papers in the national and international journals and two patents. He is a Fellow of Indian Virological Society and Indian Phytopathological Society, National Academy of Biological Science and a member of The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India. He is a member in the Study Group on Nanoviridae of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Dr. Mandal is the Editor-in-Chief of "VirusDisease", an international journal on Virology, which is published through Springer. Dr. Mandal teaches Plant Virology and guides master and PhD students at IARI, New Delhi. His major contribution is in developing technologies for diagnosis of plant viruses that are important in Indian agriculture. During last 23 years, Dr. Mandal characterised as many as 24 different plant viruses belonging to 10 genera and generated genome sequence resources, which were utilised to design molecular tools to generate recombinant antigens and antibodies. Dr. Mandal has developed several prototypes of diagnostic kits. Currently, Dr. Mandal's Lab has initiated work on developing plant virus genome based expression vector and virus induced gene silencing vector. Dr Govind Pratap Rao is working as a Principal Scientist (Plant Pathology) at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Dr Rao has 29 years of research experience on plant pathology especially on plant virology and phytoplasmas. He did significant contributions in characterization of viruses infecting cucurbits, sugarcane, maize and sorghum viruses. He also developed polyclonal antibodies against Sugarcane mosaic virus, Sugarcane streak mosaic virus, Sugarcane yellow leaf virus, Maize dwarf mosaic virus and Rice tungro bacilliform and Rice tungro spherical viruses. He has published over 130 research publications and authored and edited nearly 17 books to his credit.  He has also guided  3 MSc and 11 PhD students on different aspects of plant pathology. He has been worked in different capacities as Scientific Officer, Sr Scientific Officer (Pl Pathology), Head, Div Plant Pathology  and Officer-in-Charge at Research Stations of UP Council of Sugarcane Research centres at Seorahi, Gorakhpur and Shahjahanpur from 1987 to 2010. He has been awarded several prestigious awards to his credit. The most important ones are: National Biotechnology Associateship Award (1991-1992), DBT, Govt. of India; Young Scientist Award (1994-1995) from DST, Govt. of India; Overseas BOYSCAST Award (1996) from DST, Govt. of India; President Award, Society for General Microbiology, UK, 1998; Best U.P. Agriculture Scientist Award (UPCAR) ,Govt of Uttar Pradesh in  2002; Vigyan Ratna Award by CST, Govt. of UP for the year 2003-2004; Jin Xiu Qiu Award in 2006 by People's Govt of Guangxi Province,  Nanning, China, Global Award of Excellence, IS 2008, Al-Ahrish, Egypt and Dr. Ram Badan Singh Vishisht Krishi Vaigyanik Puraskar-2014  by UPCAR, Lucknow, India. Dr. Rao is Editor-in-Chiefs of Sugar Tech, an international journal of sugar crops and related industries, and Phytopathogenic Mollicutes, an international journal of phloem limited microrganisms. Dr Rao is also Secretary General of Indian Virological Society, New Delhi and member of several prestigious scientific societies and organizations like, APS,USA;  ASM, USA; ISSCT, Mauritius, IPWG, Italy, SSRP, New Delhi and IPS, New Delhi. Besides, Dr Rao has visited 27 countries as visiting scientists, for invited talk, postdoc fellow, research training, panel discussion and for attending workshop and conferences. At present Dr. Rao is working on characterization