On agricultural importance of cyanobacteria mediated phosphate availability in soil

Abstract

Life on earth is dependent on phosphorous (P). In many natural ecosystems, P is one of the principle macronutrients limiting the growth and development of living forms. Diminishing global pool, escalating cost and limited supply have made P a geostrategically important mineral. In many agro-ecosystems, contrary to the common belief P is available in plenty but in forms that cannot be utilized directly by the crop plants. The limited availability of P to the crops is a serious threat to the global food security. In tropical regions, cyanobacteria is an agronomically important group of prokaryotic photoautotrophs often constitute a dominant microflora in agro-ecosystems such as paddy and sugarcane-fields. They are bestowed with efficient systems to sense in milieu phosphate deficiency. Moreover, they have developed different strategies to scavenge organic phosphate available in the external medium into usable inorganic forms. Apart from fulfilling their own need, the freed inorganic P becomes available to the crop plants. In this chapter, we have reviewed various strategies adopted by cyanobacteria to meet out their phosphate need under Pi-deficient conditions; and agricultural significance of cyanobacteria-mediated Pi enrichment of soil in increasing crop productivity. © 2015 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.