Name | Kalyan K. Mondal |
Designation | Principal Scientist |
Complete postal Address with city code | Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012 |
Email IDs | kalyanmondal@yahoo.com; mondal_kk@rediffmail.com |
Mobile No. | 9873313265, 9868153461 |
Birth & Educations: Born at Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal. BSc Ag (1991) and MSc Ag (1993) from BCKV, Kalyani, and PhD from ICAR-IARI (1999)
Positions hold: Post-doctoral Research Associate (1999- 2000) at National Institute of Plant Biotechnology, Pusa Campus, New Delhi; Post-doctoral Associate (2000- 2001) at Advanced Centre for Plant Virology, Division of Plant Pathology, IARI, New Delhi; ). Scientist at CSKHPKV, Palampur (2001-2006); Senior Scientist, (2006-2012); Principal Scientist (since Dec, 2012) at. Div. of Plant Pathology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi.
Awards/Honours: Joint Secretary (Jan 2019 to Dec 2022); Councillor (Delhi Zone) (Jan 2011 to Dec 2012); Editor & Senior Editor: Senior Editor-Phytopath News (2019-21); Editor-Indian Phytopathology (2018-2019); Editor-Indian Phytopathology (special issue) (2020); Associate Editor-Indian Phytopathology (2004-2007; 2011-2012). Member, The National Academy of Sciences India (2013); SARP Associate Award 2017, SARP, ICAR-NRCP, Solapur, MS (2017); Prof. J.P. Verma Memorial Award (2016).; Amulya Lahiri Smriti Gold Medal, WBCHSE (1987); Prof M. K. Patel Memorial Young Scientist Award (2008); Prof M J Narasimhan Academic Merit award (2001)
Fellow: Fellow Indian Phytopathological Society (2013)
Research Areas & Significant contributions: Dr. Mondal was the first to decipher the repertoire of Type 3 Secretion System (T3SS) effectors in two nationally important bacterial pathogens, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) and X. axonopodis pv. punicae (Xap) causing blight of rice and pomegranate, respectively. Dr. Mondal’s detailed functional studies unraveled that two T3SS effectors, namely XopF and XopR play significant role in disease development in rice. His group further identified cognate rice receptors that interacts with XopF and demonstrated that silencing those targets could lead to disease resistance. His team determined the race status of Xoo and contributed in the development bacterial blight resistance rice varieties, Pusa 1592, Pusa 1728 and Pusa 1718 having xa13 and Xa21 genes. In Xap, Dr. Mondal’s group demonstrated that T3SS effectors like XopC2, XopL and XopN play crucial role in modulating pomegranate PTI. He was the first to conclusively prove relatedness of pv. punicae with Xanthomonas citri. Towards searching for novel disease management options, Dr. Mondal investigated the antibacterial properties of nanocopper against Xap and patented (Patent No. 294416-dt 2018/03/16, India) a nanocopper based formulation for the management of bacterial blight of pomegranate. Besides, Dr. Mondal developed and commercialized a PCR detection kit for pomegranate bacterial blight for efficient detection which is necessary to produce quality planting materials. He established the etiology of emerging bacterial diseases like rice panicle blight (Burkholderia glumae), tinda fruit rot (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and rice leaf blight (Pantoea ananatis). Dr. Mondal visited Stanford University, USA as visiting scholar. Besides, he visited China, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand for delivering invited talks in International conferences.