With the increase in world population, the demography of humans is estimated to be exceeded and it has become a major challenge to provide an adequate amount of food, feed, and agricultural products majorly in developing countries. The use of chemical fertilizers causes the plant to grow efficiently and rapidly to meet the food demand. The drawbacks of using a higher quantity of chemical or synthetic fertilizers are environmental pollution, persistent changes in the soil ecology, physiochemical composition, decreasing agricultural productivity and cause several health hazards. Climatic factors are responsible for enhancing abiotic stress on crops, resulting in reduced agricultural productivity. There are various types of abiotic and biotic stress factors like soil salinity, drought, wind, improper temperature, heavy metals, waterlogging, and different weeds and phytopathogens like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and nematodes which attack plants, reducing crop productivity and quality. There is a shift toward the use of biofertilizers due to all these facts, which provide nutrition through natural processes like zinc, potassium and phosphorus solubilization, nitrogen fixation, production of hormones, siderophore, various hydrolytic enzymes and protect the plant from different plant pathogens and stress conditions. They provide the nutrition in adequate amount that is sufficient for healthy crop development to fulfill the demand of the increasing population worldwide, eco-friendly and economically convenient. This review will focus on biofertilizers and their mechanisms of action, role in crop productivity and in biotic/abiotic stress tolerance.
A broad range of health-care practices is required to exploit the beneficial effects of Ayurveda, which is the most ancient system of medicines. Being the essence of Ayurvedic medicines, Indian medicinal plants manifest miraculous effects in curing a vast range of diseases and disorders among humans and can be better called as "elixirs of life." Currently, there is much growing interest in the use of these medicinal plants as modulators of the complex immune system. Through a number of vast researches conducted in the area, it is being explored that many of the chemicals in the form of alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, polysaccharides, lactones, and glycoside products are responsible to cause alterations in the immunomodulatory properties. Keeping in mind, the tremendous potential of the medicinal plants and their derived drugs, I am introducing this review with a purpose to globally popularize the Indian herbal medicines as immunomodulators.
In the present study we examined the effect of nanogypsum and Pseudomonas taiwanensis strain BCRC 17751on plant and soil health using conventional and metagenomics approaches. Soil physicochemical properties and agronomical parameters of maize plants were reported to be better when applied with nanogypsum and bacterial inoculum together. When compared to control a significant increase in total bacterial counts, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (NPK) solubilizing bacterial population and soil enzyme activities (fluorescein diacetate, alkaline phosphatase, dehydrogenase, β-glucosidase, arylesterase and amylase) was reported in treatments. The metagenomics studies revealed dominance of beneficial bacteria such as Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes, Planctomycetes, Acidobacteria and Nitrospirae in treated soil. On the other hand some novel bacterial diversity was also reported in treated soil which was evident from presence of taxonomically unclassified sequences. Hence, it can be concluded that combined application of nanogypsum and Pseudomonas taiwanensis in maize help in improving the structure and function of soil which affects the plant health without causing any toxic effect. However, in situ validation of the prescribed treatment is required under field conditions on different crops in order to give maximum benefits to the farmers and the environment.
Biotic stress is caused by harmful microbes that prevent plants from growing normally and also having numerous negative effects on agriculture crops globally. Many biotic factors such as bacteria, fungi, virus, weeds, insects, and nematodes are the major constrains of stress that tends to increase the reactive oxygen species that affect the physiological and molecular functioning of plants and also led to the decrease in crop productivity. Bacterial and fungal endophytes are the solution to overcome the tasks faced with conventional farming, and these are environment friendly microbial commodities that colonize in plant tissues without causing any damage. Endophytes play an important role in host fitness, uptake of nutrients, synthesis of phytohormone and diminish the injury triggered by pathogens via antibiosis, production of lytic enzymes, secondary metabolites, and hormone activation. They are also reported to help plants in coping with biotic stress, improving crops and soil health, respectively. Therefore, usage of endophytes as biofertilizers and biocontrol agent have developed an eco-friendly substitute to destructive chemicals for plant development and also in mitigation of biotic stress. Thus, this review highlighted the potential role of endophytes as biofertilizers, biocontrol agent, and in mitigation of biotic stress for maintenance of plant development and soil health for sustainable agriculture.
Climate change, inadequate possessions, and land degradation all pose obstacles to modern agriculture. In the current scenario, the agriculture industry is mainly dependent on the use of chemical-based pesticides and fertilizers that impact soil health and crop productivity. Moreover, water scarcity leads farmers in drastically affected regions to use heavy metal-enriched water sources mainly originating from industrial sources for field crops irrigation. Soil pollutants can be carried into the human body via dust and water, creating negative health effects varying from simple symptoms, e.g., nausea and diarrhea and reaching death in critical cases. Thus, to clean soil contaminants, and improve soil fertility and agricultural production, alternatives to chemical fertilizers must be developed. Therefore, using beneficial microbes found in plant-associated soil microorganisms offers an effective strategy to alleviate some of these challenges, improving soil fertility, and crop yield, and protecting plants from stress conditions. Through the use of synergistic interactions, the synthetic consortium strategy seeks to improve the stability of microbial communities. In this review, synthetic consortia and their potential use in agriculture were discussed. Further, engineering new effective synthetic consortia was suggested as an effective approach in the concept of environmental bioremediation of soil pollutants and contaminants.
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