Plant growth promoting myco-stimulation for sustainable agriculture production under abiotic stress

Abstract

Abiotic stresses are challenging problem in agriculture crop production and can occur from a limit of an essential resource, due to change in environmental condition and excess amounts of toxic substances. The common adverse environmental conditions, namely, salinity, drought, heavy metal toxicity, heat, cold, and oxidative stress, affect production and productivity of crop worldwide. Beneficial microbes are cost efficient and climate friendly that can be used to control abiotic stresses and to improve plant health for better yield. However, most of the work with beneficial microbes is checked only in controlled condition. So, there is need to use these microbes under field condition for the management of abiotic stresses. Microorganisms increase tolerance in plant against abiotic stresses and are very effective tool in agriculture. Fungi that are responsible for plant growth promotion can alleviate impact of abiotic stresses effectively. Two types of soil fungi such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma spp. can be considered effective natural plants stimulants. Generally, most of the experiment and investigations showed that these fungi are safe and also effective for use as natural remedies devoted to agriculture production. Fungi used as natural stress management are favorable with recent tendency of environmental conservation and crop and food production. Here, in this chapter, we described the agronomical, physiological, biochemical, and molecular interventions that provide tolerance to salinity, drought, temperature, and nutrient deficiency stresses in mycostimulant plants. © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.