Mycology and Plant Pathology Laboratory has the distinction of being one of the good laboratories in the Department of Botany, JNV University, Jodhpur. The Laboratory was established within the administrative control of Department of Botany by Professor (Late) K. S. Bilgrami in 1963 with the aim of exploration of fungal flora from Rajasthan including two different geographical regions viz., Indian Thar Desert and Aravalli Mountain Range. In year 2007, laboratory was renovated with the advanced facilities to extend work with molecular techniques and bioinformatics. Several renowned researchers and teachers such as Dr. Karan Singh Panwar, Dr. H.P. Srivastava, Prof. D. K. Purohit, Prof. C. S. Gehlot, Dr. H. D. Lahari, Dr. Saroj Sobhag, Prof. A. Bohra, Prof. S. Kaur, Prof. Anil Vyas have been associated with the laboratory.
Currently, Prof. Praveen Gehlot and Dr. Kamna Sharma are working in this laboratory.
The main objectives of the laboratory are:
> To promote and accelerate quality education standards in the field of mycology and plant pathology.
> To explore fungal flora from wide-ranging habitats with their identification, systematic and diversity assessments.
> To investigate local plant disease associated with agriculture crops and forest trees with their proper diagnosis, identification of pathogens, life cycles and their management.
> To isolates and characterize thermophilic and halophilic actinomycetes for their secondary metabolites production.
Since the inception of the Laboratory, 57 students have been awarded Ph.D. degree, 4 students completed their post-doctoral fellowship (PDF) and several post-graduate (PG) students have successfully completed short term training and dissertation works from the laboratory. Research Scholars, PDF and PG students associated with laboratory have gained excellent academic carrier and research records and served or serving at distinguished positions at International and National level. National and International collaborative projects funded by various funding agency viz., UGC, DST, DBT, CSIR, and European Economic Commission etc. have been successfully completed in the laboratory. More than 400 publications including research papers, review articles, book chapters and popular articles have been published from the laboratory in various Journals of International and National repute. Besides this, more than 25 books have also been published from the laboratory by reputed publication houses including Springer and Elsevier. About 250 gene sequences of different microbes have been submitted to NCBI, USA database to address the microbial diversity in the region. Laboratory has explored 2 new genus, more than 35 new species and 50 new records of fungi from India. The laboratory has also organized various seminars, symposia, conferences, webinars and workshops for sharing the latest knowledge in the field.
