Microbial consortium of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria improves the performance of plants growing in stressed soils: An overview

Abstract

Soil and associated stress conditions not only influence dwelling microbial populations and soil ecosystems but also affect growth and yield of plants. Major soil stress includes salinity, drought, and metal contamination. Due to burgeoning populations and expanding food demands, it has become imperative to alleviate the stressful soil conditions so that the crop production is increased and, consequently, the food demands are fulfilled. Different strategies are followed to resolve this problem, and one such approach involves exploiting microbial potential for plant's benefit. The multifunctional microscopic life-forms are already known for their applications in industries, medicine, and agricultural field. One of the major attributes of microbes from agronomic point of view is their ability to solubilize difficultly available forms of soil phosphorus. Phosphate-solubilizing microbes are also known to produce enzymes, siderophores, and growth hormones; embellish plant growth and biocontrol activity; and improve soil properties. Such microorganisms possessing attributes, beneficial for plants are termed as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). There are plentiful reports on bacterial-mediated plant growth promotion under nonstressed conditions although fewer reports are available on their effects under stressed condition. The bacterial ability to enhance tolerance of plants in stressed soils and the impact of PGPR consortium (mixture) on different crops are highlighted. The major idea here is to consolidate the fact that PGPR consortium can be used directly in stress-affected soil with an aim to refurbish soil conditions to foster crop productivity in stressed soils.