Benefits Associated with the Interaction of Endophytic Bacteria and Plants

Abstract

The endophytic bacteria belong to a larger group of microorganisms that have their life-cycle partly or entirely inside the plant and are located in intra and inter-cellular spaces or in the vascular tissue. These bacteria can be found colonizing aerial parts or roots. This review aims to analyze the colonization strategies of endophytic bacteria through interaction with plants, as well as to highlight the metabolic influence of these organisms in plant tissues, which result in physiological and biochemical changes. Depending on the different mechanisms used internally to colonize a plant, these microorganisms are called obligate, facultative, or passive endophytes. Phytostimulation, biofertilization and biological control are mechanisms that result in the development of the plant through the production of plant hormones, bioavailability of nutrients and antagonistic action to phytopathogens, respectively. The association between endophytic bacteria and plants features important benefits such as significant increases in growth, plant biomass, length of roots, dry matter production, and grain yield. Studies show that there is a great diversity of endophytic bacteria colonizing plant structures that result in several benefits to the host plant.

Plant growth promotion and chilli anthracnose disease suppression ability of rhizosphere soil actinobacteria

“…Inoculation of endophytic bacteria in plants has economic importance, as it increases the yield of agricultural production and requires low-cost farming techniques, resulting in low environmental impact. Thus, it is necessary to improve management methods and application of endophytic PGPR bacteria to maximize the beneficial interactions provided by the association of these micro-organisms with plants (Miriam et al 2018). Generally, PGPR organisms promote plant growth directly by either facilitating resource acquisition (nitrogen, phosphorus and essential minerals) and modulating plant hormone levels, or indirectly by decreasing the inhibitory effects of various pathogens on plant growth and development in the forms of biocontrol agents (Khan 2005;Glick 2012).…”

Inoculation with Mycorrhizal Fungi and Other Microbes to Improve the Morpho-Physiological and Floral Traits of Gazania rigens (L.) Gaertn

“…Overall, these rhizospheric microbes bring considerable changes to plant metabolism and proteomes. These strategies are now being used at the nursery level for producing a better plant ideotype [30][31][32].…”

Diversity and the role of endophytic bacteria: A review

“…Phytostimulation basically involves the production of phytohormones which act as plant growth regulators (Beneduzi et al 2012). Phytohormones such as gibberellins, cytokinins and auxins promote changes in root morphology, absorption of water and uptake of nutrients (Santos et al 2018). It is pertinent to look at how PGPEBs aid in phytostimulation.…”

“…Endophytism is now considered as a universal phenomenon, and it is believed that all plants harbour endophytic bacteria (Compant et al 2010;Dudeja & Giri 2014). The endophytic bacteria can have immense potential in the uptake of nutrients (de Souza et al 2016;Ribeiro et al 2018), growth promotion (Ramanuj & Shelat 2018;Santos et al 2018), as biofertilizers (Ngamau et al 2014;Santos et al 2018), as biocontrol agents (Kandel et al 2017;Selim et al 2017) and in secondary metab-vol. 44 (2) olite production (Brader et al 2014;Singh et al 2017;Palanichamy et al 2018).…”