Potential Role of Endophytes in Sustainable Agriculture-Recent Developments and Future Prospects

Abstract

Discovery of new solutions for the establishment of sustainable agricultural is essential that may avoid the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides as a reliance of productivity booster. Plant associative beneficial microbes are expected to harness their contribution in integrated pest management schemes over the coming decades. There is global ever growing demand for implanting ecologically compatible and ecofriendly practices in agriculture, capable of providing adequate solutions for improving agriculture productivity. For these reasons, the endophytes prove to be an important alternative practice for long. The term endophyte is used to define those microorganisms which colonize in the plant tissues. These microorganisms induce plant growth using several mechanistic approaches such as biological nitrogen fixation, phytohormone production, phosphate solubilization, inhibition of ethylene biosynthesis, and tolerance to abiotic stresses by inducing resistance in plant to counteract against pathogenic attacks or by the release of secondary metabolites such as enzymes, siderophore, and antibiotics. The major factor that is contributing in sustainable agriculture involves choice of the plant, its age, and endophytic microorganisms which could adapt themselves in the plant tissues to be inhabited in. The basic knowledge of this kind of symbiotic relationship would assist in increasing crop production by using them as bioinoculants. The research on the ecology of endophytic bacteria will be most important contributing factor to capitalize on the agricultural returns from these microbes.