Management of abiotic and biotic stresses by microbiome-based engineering of the rhizosphere

Abstract

The rhizosphere is one of the most dynamic sites in plants, where continuous interaction is going on between the complex microbial community and the plant cell. These microorganisms impart different effects on plants, depending on the type of microorganism and the surrounding environment. Such interactions basically depend on the composition of root exudates secreted by the plant, and these interactions have either beneficial or deleterious effects on the plant. The beneficial microbes play a very diverse role in the growth and survival of the plant in different environmental states. With an increase in food demand for the growing population on limited crop land, there is a requirement for the tool to have the potential to enhance crop productivity in an eco-friendly manner. So, rhizospheric engineering is the preferred tool for enhanced crop productivity, where different microbes with different potentials need to be identified for sustainable crop productivity. In the rhizosphere, a microbial consortium has been generated, with the group of microorganisms having the ability to overcome the effects of stress factors on the survival of the associated plant. Such microbial consortiums identified against different environmental stresses are allowed to remain associated with the plant root in different stress conditions for sustainable crop productivity.