Amit Kumar Kesharwani

I was born in the capital of India, Delhi. I completed my Doctorate in Biotechnology on “Characterization and functional analysis of avr gene(s) of Indian isolates of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris causing black rot disease in cauliflower” with collaboration of Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India and Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, India. I have experienced with various Molecular and Microbial techniques, study of Plant-microbe interaction (biotic stress), mutagenesis in bacteria, RNA silencing in model plants, plant abiotic stresses, antimicrobial activity of drugs and nano-particles on bacterial growth, transgenics plant development, pathogenicity analysis on vegetable crops i.e., Brassica species and, tomato, and functional validation of Type-III effectors in Xanthomonas. Apart from research, I am a recipient of ‘DST-Young Scientist’ International Travel grant from Science and Engineering Research Board, Govt. of India and University of Florida, USA to attend 7^thXanthomonas Genomics conference at Clearwater, Florida, USA held on June 2022. Besides, I am contributing with my research expertise and skills to serve in prestigious academic journals and play a role in the Editorial Board as a Review Editor (Frontiers in Virology) and Reviewer (BMC Microbiology, Scientific Reports).

I joined Department of Plant Pathology, Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, Washington State University (IAREC-WSU), Prosser as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in July 2023 with Dr. You Fu Frank Zhao. My research focuses on the Phytopathological diseases such as Fire blight and X-diseases of orchards like Apple and, Pear caused by Gram negative Erwinia and phytoplasma.

Focus Areas

1. Plant-pathogen interaction (Fire blight and X-diseases of orchards)
2. Antimicrobial resistance in phytopathogens
3. CRISPR/CAS-based diagnosis of phytopathogens