Functions and Applications of Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPR) in Highly Technified Crops

Abstract

The need of higher agricultural productivity in recent decades has led to a great technification in crops. However, this had significant environmental costs due mainly to the indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides. In response, a new trend seeks to establish more environmentally friendly cultivation methods where plant-growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) can play a key role. PGPR influence a large number of plant-growth and developmental factors (N and P assimilation, phyto hormones, etc)) and help protect against other harmful organisms (antagonistic and bio-control effects, ISR and SAR). Thus, cultivation of PGPR for introduction into crops can result in large commercial opportunities. However, the implantation of these microorganisms is complex, making research on microorganisms-plant interactions a topic of great current interest.