Mitigating abiotic stress: microbiome engineering for improving agricultural production and environmental sustainability.
The responses of plants to different abiotic stresses and mechanisms involved in their mitigation are discussed. Production of osmoprotectants, antioxidants, enzymes and other metabolites by beneficial microorganisms and their bioengineering ameliorates environmental stresses to improve food production. Progressive intensification of global agriculture, injudicious use of agrochemicals and change in climate conditions have deteriorated soil health, diminished the microbial biodiversity and resulted in environment pollution along with increase in biotic and abiotic stresses. Extreme weather conditions and erratic rains have further imposed additional stress for the growth and development of plants. Dominant abiotic stresses comprise drought, temperature, increased salinity, acidity, metal toxicity and nutrient starvation in soil, which severely limit crop production. For promoting sustainable crop production in environmentally challenging environments, use of beneficial microbes has emerged as a safer and sustainable means for mitigation of abiotic stresses resulting in improved crop productivity. These stress-tolerant microorganisms play an effective role against abiotic stresses by enhancing the antioxidant potential, improving nutrient acquisition, regulating the production of plant hormones, ACC deaminase, siderophore and exopolysaccharides and accumulating osmoprotectants and, thus, stimulating plant biomass and crop yield. In addition, bioengineering of beneficial microorganisms provides an innovative approach to enhance stress tolerance in plants. The use of genetically engineered stress-tolerant microbes as inoculants of crop plants may facilitate their use for enhanced nutrient cycling along with amelioration of abiotic stresses to improve food production for the ever-increasing population. In this chapter, an overview is provided about the current understanding of plant-bacterial interactions that help in alleviating abiotic stress in different crop systems in the face of climate change. This review largely focuses on the importance and need of sustainable and environmentally friendly approaches using beneficial microbes for ameliorating the environmental stresses in our agricultural systems.
Phour M
,Sindhu SS
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Physiological and biochemical perspectives of non-salt tolerant plants during bacterial interaction against soil salinity.
Climatic changes on earth affect the soil quality of agricultural lands, especially by increasing salt deposition in soil, which results in soil salinity. Soil salinity is a major challenge to growth and reproduction among glycophytes (including all crop plants). Soil bacteria present in the rhizosphere and/or roots naturally protect plants from the adverse effects of soil salinity by reprogramming the stress-induced physiological changes in plants. Bacteria can enrich the soil with major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) in a form easily available to plants and prevent the transport of excess sodium to roots (exopolysaccharides secreted by bacteria bind with sodium ions) for maintaining ionic balance and water potential in cells. Salinity also affects plant growth regulators and suppresses seed germination and root and shoot growth. Bacterial secretion of indole-3-acetic acid and gibberellins compensates for the salt-induced hormonal decrease in plants, and bacterial 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase synthesis decreases ethylene production to stimulate plant growth. Furthermore, bacteria modulate the redox state of salinity-affected plants by enhancing antioxidants and polyamines, which leads to increased photosynthetic efficiency. Bacteria-induced accumulation of compatible solutes in stressed plants regulates plant cellular activities and prevents salt stress damage. Plant-bacterial interaction reprograms the expression of salt stress-responsive genes and proteins in salinity-affected plants, resulting in a precise stress mitigation metabolism as a defense mechanism. Soil bacteria increase the fertility of soil and regulate the plant functions to prevent the salinity effects in glycophytes. This review explains the current understanding about the physiological changes induced in glycophytes during bacterial interaction to alleviate the adverse effects of soil salinity stress.
Radhakrishnan R
,Baek KH
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Salt-tolerant plant growth-promoting Bacillus pumilus strain JPVS11 to enhance plant growth attributes of rice and improve soil health under salinity stress.
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth and productivity has been negatively affected due to high soil salinity. However, some salt-tolerant plant growth-promoting bacteria (ST-PGPB) enhance crop growth and reduce the negative impacts of salt stress through regulation of some biochemical, physiological, and molecular features. Total thirty six ST-PGPB were isolated from sodic soil of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, and screened for salt tolerance at different salt (NaCl) concentrations up to 2000 millimolar (mM). Out of thirty-six, thirteen strains indicated better growth and plant growth properties (PGPs) in NaCl amended medium. Among thirteen, one most effective Bacillus pumilus strain JPVS11 was molecularly characterized, which showed potential PGPs, such as indole-3-acetic acid (IAA),1-aminocyclo propane-1-carboxylicacid (ACC) deaminase activity, P-solubilization, proline accumulation and exopolysaccharides (EPS) production at different concentrations of NaCl (0 -1200 mM). Pot experiment was conducted on rice (Variety CSR46) at different NaCl concentrations (0, 50, 100, 200, and 300 mM) with and without inoculation of Bacillus pumilus strain JPVS11. At elevated concentrations of NaCl, the adverse effects on chlorophyll content, carotenoids, antioxidant activity was recorded in non-inoculated (only NaCl) plants. However, inoculation of Bacillus pumilus strain JPVS11 showed positive adaption and improve growth performance of rice as compared to non-inoculated in similar conditions. A significant (P < 0.05) enhancement plant height (12.90-26.48%), root length (9.55-23.09%), chlorophyll content (10.13-27.24%), carotenoids (8.38-25.44%), plant fresh weight (12.33-25.59%), and dry weight (8.66-30.89%) were recorded from 50 to 300 mM NaCl concentration in inoculated plants as compared to non-inoculated. Moreover, the plants inoculated with Bacillus pumilus strain JPVS11showed improvement in antioxidant enzyme activities of catalase (15.14-32.91%) and superoxide dismutase (8.68-26.61%). Besides, the significant improvement in soil enzyme activities, such as alkaline phosphatase (18.37-53.51%), acid phosphatase (28.42-45.99%), urease (14.77-47.84%), and β-glucosidase (25.21-56.12%) were recorded in inoculated pots as compared to non-inoculated. These results suggest that Bacillus pumilus strain JPVS11 is a potential ST-PGPB for promoting plant growth attributes, soil enzyme activities, microbial counts, and mitigating the deleterious effects of salinity in rice.
Kumar A
,Singh S
,Mukherjee A
,Rastogi RP
,Verma JP
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