Role of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria to enhance crop productivity in drylands

Abstract

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria are considered as a sustainable synergistic biological tool to enhance drought stress tolerance by regulating physiological and biochemical processes (Kaushal and Wani, 2016). As outlined above, PGPRs enhances tolerance to water scarcity in plants by producing certain chemical compounds, by modifying gene expression, root structure and activate defense mechanism through antioxidant production (Khan and Bano, 2019; Kaushaland Wani, 2016). They can also facilitate acquisition of resources (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus) and by plant hormone level modulation and by acting as biocontrol agents against crop pathogens (Glick, 2012; Kloepper and Schroth, 1981). Many of these traits are applicable to dryland cropping systems. There is already a wealth of evidence that PGPRs can be used to enhance crop productivity in drylands. For example, Phyllobacterium brassicacearum (STM196) can enhance crop productivity under drought conditions by delaying flowering time, inducing changes in transpiration, ABA content, photosynthesis, and enhanced water use efficiency, which ultimately resulted in biomass gain (Bresson et al., 2013). Similarly, PGPRs lessened the stress and increased growth and yield by decreasing MDA level in peppermint grown under drought stress by boosting antioxidant enzyme activity and reducing ROS (reactive oxygen species) accumulation (Chiappero et al., 2019).

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English