Divisional webinar on “Molecular Interventions in Plant Pathology and Entomology”

Divisional webinar on “Molecular Interventions in Plant Pathology and Entomology” was organized by Forest Protection Division, FRI on 22^nd September, 2022. Chief Guest Dr. Renu Singh, Director, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun emphasized the need of DNA fingerprinting in the management of insect-pests and diseases in the forest ecosystem.  Dr. Amit Pandey, Head, Forest Protection Division welcomed the participants and emphasized the challenges in the management of viral diseases of trees. The webinar was attended by more than 100 participants online/ offline. The technical session started with presentation by Dr. Vinay K Kalia, Principal Scientist, IARI, New Delhi on molecular interventions in entomopathogenic bacteria based biopesticides. She spoke about insect pest problems in agriculture crops and forest trees, available options to combat them, failure of synthetic insecticides and potential of native isolates of entomopathogenic bacteria in insect pest control. Another speaker, Dr. M Gurivi Reddy, Asst. Professor, A.N.G.R.A.U, Tirupati enlightened participants about application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology to manage plant viral diseases. He has presented case studies where CRISPR/Cas9 was successfully used against plant virus. Dr. Shruti Godara, Scientist spoke on various molecular techniques used for diagnosis of viral diseases in plants quoting uses, merits and demerits of each technique. The last talk was about application of RNAi technology for insect pest management by Ms. G S Uma, Scientist & Organising Secretary of the event who emphasized the need for RNAi in insect pest management, RNAi mechanism in insects and research done so far on RNAi technology. She also elaborated limitations of RNAi. Finally, webinar was concluded with vote of thanks by Dr. Ranjeet Singh- Scientist, FRI. Among others, the seminar was also attended by eminent scientists such as Dr. A. P. Singh, Dr. Vipin Parkash, Dr. K.P. Singh,     Dr. Arvind Kumar, Dr. Shailesh Pandey and Smt. Ranjana Jhuwanta.