Agriculture faces challenges to fulfil the rising food demand due to shortage of arable land and various environmental stressors. Traditional farming technologies help in fulfilling food demand but they are harmful to humans and environmental sustainability. The food production along with agro-environmental sustainability could be achieved by encouraging farmers to use agro-environmental sustainable products such as biofertilizers and biopesticides consisting of live microbes or plant extract instead of chemical-based inputs. The eco-friendly formulations play a significant role in plant growth promotion, crop yield and repairing degraded soil texture and fertility sustainably. Mineral solubilizing microbes that provide vital nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, zinc and selenium are essential for plant growth and development and could be developed as biofertilizers. These microbes could be plant associated (rhizospheric, endophytic and phyllospheric) or inhabit the bulk soil and diverse extreme habitats. Mineral solubilizing microbes from soil, extreme environments, surface and internal parts of the plant belong to diverse phyla such as Ascomycota,
Microbes are ubiquitous in nature, and plant-microbe interactions are a key strategy for colonizing diverse habitats. Fungi are producing a wide range of secondary metabolites and bioactive compounds, which are probable alternative sources of drugs and/or antibiotics. Fungi are associated with the crops and plays an important role in plant growth promotion and enhanced soil fertility using different PGP mechanism such as solubilization of phosphorus, zinc, potassium; production of plant growth regulator (auxins, cytokinin, gibberellins, ethylene and abscisic acid); hydrolytic enzymes (xylanases, laccase, pectinases, cellulases); and siderophores. Besides eliciting plant defence reaction against pathogens; PGP fungi also help in plant growth promotion and alleviation of different abiotic stresses under harsh environments. The PGP fungi have reported from different genera of phyla Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Glomeromycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota. Fungi also have significant potential applications in various industries like medical, and food. In the medical applications, fungi and fungal products are used to control disease in human and animals. In the fermentation industries fungi used to make alcoholic beverages, cheeses, bread, kefir, yogurt and various other food preparations and the agricultural sectors used to make plant healthy and protects to pathogens. The present review, deals with the biodiversity of beneficial fungi from different habitats and their biotechnological applications in plant growth promotion and soil health.
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