The state of the rhizoinhabitants in bridging the gap between plant productivity and persuasiveness during remediation

Abstract

Plants in association with rhizobacteria have the ability, one way or other, to scavenge chemicals and/or nutrients from the environment for their enhanced productivity and very existence. Without these remediator plants and other microbial decomposers, our ecosystems would be packed with chemicals and biological toxicants from nature. Similarly, without the combinatorial interactions between plants and microbes, man-made synthetic compounds would be accumulating to noxious levels day by day and would be affecting every category of the aquatic and terrestrial biomes globally. The ability of plants, in association with microbial partners, to take up and concentrate contaminants in their biological tissues without destroying the environment has been considered as a conceptual methodology for the clean-up of contaminants. Such a plant-based green-remediation process depends on the amalgamation of the abilities possessed by the plants and by the plant's rhizobial inhabitants to deal with various classes of chemical contaminants. However, the success of such green remediation and plant productivity is closely associated with the state of the rhizobial inhabitants, environmental factors and the function of the ecosystem that the plants inhabit. In recent years, the state of rhizobial inhabitants has emerged as a potential keystone concern among agrobiologists because it plays a major role in plant productivity and ecosystem fitness. The experience gained through in-situ microbial remediation of contaminated sites over the last two decades and the knowledge of remediator plant species (as well as chemical toxicants and their speciation) have yielded comprehensive data to help in bridging the gap between plant productivity and persuasiveness (i.e. ability to spread through the contaminated site). Insights into the selection of plants and their rhizobacteria for precise remediation processes have made phytomicrobial remediation one of the most promising green technologies for amalgamated chemoremediation and plant productivity. This chapter addresses how plants hold their rhizobial cohorts and help them thrive and discusses how various interactions, such as plant-plant, plant-microbe and plant-chemical, can enhance plant productivity while promoting the clean-up of chemicals. It also deals with the state of the rhizobacteria, in-situ chemical speciation and the influencing factors for plant productivity.