University of the Punjab.

Introduction:
I did my PhD from the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of the Punjab, Lahore. My general research area is agricultural microbiology/ bacteria-plant interactions. Currently, I am evaluating the potential of bacterial auxin as biofertilizers for agronomically important crops. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) represents one of the most extensively studied and abundant type of auxin that regulate multidimensional developmental processes in plants. In addition to plants, IAA is also quantitatively the most abundant phytohormones secreted by rhizobacteria as secondary metabolites. Keeping this in view, I isolated number of bacterial strains associated with plant’s rhizosphere and screened for their auxin production potential by colorimetric and GC-MS analysis. In addition to auxin production, I also screened bacterial strains for other plant growth promoting attributes; especially, for phosphate solubilization or siderophores production. Recently, I also focused on the agricultural significance of drought resistant Bacillus strains to enhance crop productivity under water stress conditions.