Plant-bacterial interactions and sustainable crop production: Physiological and molecular mechanisms

Abstract

In recent days, continuously increasing human population as well as rapid development of industries and multiplexes has limited the space required for agricultural practices throughout the world which has ultimately resulted in reduced crop production. In addition, crop plants that are being cultivated in these limited agricultural lands are also facing a number of environmental constraints such as nutrient scarcity, soil acidity, heavy metal toxicity, pathogen attack, contamination of xenobiotic compounds etc. which are also inhibiting their growth. Hence, it is apparent that crop production all over the world is under serious threat which is weakening the global food security. Therefore, it has become indispensable to increase the crop production rate to meet the need of the ever increasing world population. For this, enhancement of soil fertility or mobilization of already existing soil nutrients is very much important. Bacteria present in soil play an outstanding role in increasing soil fertility and plant growth. Bacteria can also promote plant growth indirectly by protecting the plants from different environmental stresses (biotic and abiotic). So, the scientific exploration of plant growth promoting bacterial strains and their application in the agricultural fields may help to sustain crop production and overcome the problems related to the global food security. The present review describes the role of soil bacterial diversity in sustainable agriculture and the mechanisms used by these beneficial microbes to promote plant growth. A meticulous study of PGPB for their roles in N-fixation, P solubilisation, S oxidation, improving nutrient acquisition by plants, phytostimulation, rhizoremediation, controlling stress as well as production of siderophores, antibiotics, HCN and volatile organic compounds has been presented in this article. Therefore, this review will help to understand the bacterial diversity and their specific plant growth promoting activities with recent progress in the field of agricultural microbiology. © 2017 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.