Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
Microbial Consortium of Plant Growth-
Promoting Rhizobacteria Improves
the Performance of Plants Growing
in Stressed Soils: An Overview
Meenu Panwar, Rupinder Tewari, and Harsh Nayyar
Abstract
Soil and associated stress conditions not only influence dwelling micro-
bial populations and soil ecosystems but also affect growth and yield of plants.
Major soil stress includes salinity, drought, and metal contamination. Due to
burgeoning populations and expanding food demands, it has become imperative
to alleviate the stressful soil conditions so that the crop production is increased and,
consequently, the food demands are fulfilled. Different strategies are followed to
resolve this problem, and one such approach involves exploiting microbial potential
for plant's benefit. The multifunctional microscopic life-forms are already known
for their applications in industries, medicine, and agricultural field. One of the
major attributes of microbes from agronomic point of view is their ability to
solubilize difficultly available forms of soil phosphorus. Phosphate-solubilizing
microbes are also known to produce enzymes, siderophores, and growth hormones;
embellish plant growth and biocontrol activity; and improve soil properties. Such
microorganisms possessing attributes, beneficial for plants are termed as plant
growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). There are plentiful reports on bacterial-
mediated plant growth promotion under nonstressed conditions although fewer
reports are available on their effects under stressed condition. The bacterial ability
to enhance tolerance of plants in stressed soils and the impact of PGPR consortium
(mixture) on different crops are highlighted. The major idea here is to consolidate
the fact that PGPR consortium can be used directly in stress-affected soil with an
aim to refurbish soil conditions to foster crop productivity in stressed soils.
Keywords
PGPR • Microbial consortium • Siderophores • Biocontrol • Soil
stressors
