Allelochemicals as natural herbicides for sustainable agriculture to promote a cleaner environment

Abstract

Allelopathy interaction initiates communication between plants and microorganisms, by liberating secondary metabolites as signaling molecules that have the potential to impact the growth and development of neighboring plants in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Herbicide residues pollute soil and groundwater, the hasty spread of invasive weed populations, growing resistant weed species, and interrelated health hazards have directed the research focus to detect and set up new alternative weed management approaches. Allelopathic strategies are being a key phenomenon for weed control by breeding allelopathic varieties of crops, allelopathic crops as cover crops, and incorporating them in crop rotational cycle, and identification of allelochemicals from various sources, such as plants and microorganisms, could proceed toward sustainable agriculture with a greener and cleaner environment. Genetic mapping of QTLs linked to allelochemicals, understanding the modes of action, molecular mechanisms of allelopathy, and soil dynamics in crop weed completion are advancing rapidly in relevance to weed management as a bioherbicide. The adaptive plasticity of plants will enable them to change their morphological and physiological traits after their exposure to allelochemicals in the weed crop competition scenario. The existence of genetic variation correlated to the allelopathic potential for weed suppression could be further exploited for looming organic plant breeding approaches.