Metagenomics for Legume Crop Improvement

Metagenomics for Legume Crop Improvement offers a comprehensive and timely exploration of the enormous potential hidden within legume-associated microbial communities. Legumes play a crucial role in global food security and sustainable agriculture due to their natural symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing and plant growth–promoting microbes. Yet, despite their significance, the microbiomes surrounding legumes remain poorly understood. This book aims to bridge that gap by bringing together cutting-edge research, analytical tools, and practical applications of metagenomics, a transformative approach that allows the direct study of entire microbial communities without the need for cultivation. The book provides an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating plant science, microbiology, biotechnology, and bioinformatics to reveal how metagenomic insights can enhance legume productivity, resilience, soil health, and long-term sustainability. It uniquely combines foundational concepts with advanced methodologies and real-world agricultural relevance, making it stand out as a vital reference for emerging research in plant–microbe interactions.

Key Features:

• Provides a holistic overview of legume-associated microbiomes, including microbial ecology, nutrient cycling, and stress responses
• Highlights advanced metagenomic techniques, sequencing platforms, and bioinformatics tools tailored for legume research
• Explores how environmental stresses such as extreme pH, nutrient deficiencies, fertilizers, and climate stressors shape legume microbiomes
• Introduces integrative “omics” approaches (metagenomics–metabolomics) to uncover microbial functions and plant interactions

Written for researchers, graduate students, academicians, and agricultural practitioners, this book serves as both an educational resource and a practical guide. By connecting scientific discovery with field-level applications, Metagenomics for Legume Crop Improvement provides the knowledge needed to harness beneficial microbes for sustainable farming and future-ready legume cultivation. It is an essential addition to the libraries of professionals working in plant science, microbiome research, and agricultural biotechnology.

Dr. Anil Kumar Singh is a Principal Scientist at the ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, India. He has been engaged in plant molecular biology and biotechnology research for more than two decades. His research group has extensively characterized genomes and transcriptomes of several crop plants and commercially important microbes, generating valuable gene resource for crop improvement. Many of these genes have been functionally validated in model plants as well as in economically important crops such as rice and potato through the gene pyramiding approach. Dr. Singh has also worked as a visiting Scientist at the University of Minnesota, USA, where he worked on novel strategies for multiplexed genome editing and approaches to overcome low transformation efficiency in recalcitrant legume crops, thereby advancing precision breeding tools for underutilized and technically challenging species.

He is currently leading an ambitious project aimed at deciphering the influence of soil pH on the rhizosphere microbiome of legume crops, with the goal of developing microbe-based mitigation strategies for acidic soil stress. Dr. Singh has published more than 90 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals with a cumulative Impact Factor ~ 300, over 4,700 citations, and an h-index of 37. He has also edited two books and authored 15 book chapters and delivered invited or keynote lectures at more than 40 National and International conferences in India and abroad. He serves on the editorial board of several reputed journals, including Frontiers in Plant Science, PLOS ONE, BMC Research Notes, and Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany. Furthermore, he has guest edited special Issues in Antioxidants, Genes, Tree Physiology and Physiologia Plantarum. In recognition of his significant contributions to plant molecular biology research, Dr. Singh has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), and the Plant Tissue Culture Association-India.

Dr. Alok Ranjan is a plant biotechnologist and molecular biologist with over 15 years of research experience and more than seven years of teaching in modern plant sciences and biotechnology. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Patna Women’s College, Patna University, Bihar. Dr. Ranjan completed his PhD in biotechnology at CSIR–National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, in collaboration with Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He possesses over eight years of international postdoctoral research experience from renowned institutions, including the Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University (Sweden), Oklahoma State University (USA), Meharry Medical College (USA), and Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). His research expertise includes plant stress physiology, hormone signaling, adventitious root development, and multi-omics approaches. Dr. Ranjan has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles, several book chapters, and has served as a reviewer for leading scientific journals. His research output has garnered over 1,800 citations, with an h-index of 22, and he holds one Indian patent. He has been actively engaged in root biology, metagenomics, and plant stress physiology, and his recent work on legume metagenomics aligns closely with the objectives of this book.