Elsevier

Pedosphere

Volume 33, Issue 1, February 2023, Pages 49-60
Pedosphere

Role of methylotrophic bacteria in managing abiotic stresses for enhancing agricultural production

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedsph.2022.06.028Get rights and content

Abstract

Abiotic stresses are a significant factor that considerably limits plant growth and productivity. Methylotrophs are an essential group of bacteria that utilize volatile carbon compounds, are prolific colonizers of different plant parts, and play a vital role in plant growth promotion (PGP) under stress conditions. Numerous rhizospheric and phyllosphere methylotrophs have been reported to exhibit PGP activities with superior stress-tolerating capacity against drought, heavy metal, salinity, high and low temperatures, solar ultraviolet radiation, and other harsh environmental conditions. Methylotrophs promote plant growth through N2 fixation, phosphate solubilization, production of phytohormones (i.e., auxins, gibberellins, and cytokinins), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase activity, siderophore, ammonia production, and secondary metabolites. The production of these compounds by methylotrophs protects a plant against adverse environmental conditions and influences its productivity. This review discusses the role methylotrophs play in managing various abiotic stresses, how they help mitigate these stresses, and how they improve agricultural productivity.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

Plants are susceptible to environmental changes; therefore, their growth and development are considerably affected by biotic and abiotic factors. Drought condition is a significant threat to plant growth and sustainable agriculture production worldwide. There are a number of factors leading to increasing concern about the global food security. The increasing human population is highly affecting climate change in a tremendous way along with usage of chemical fertilizers. Lesk et al. (2016)

EFFECT OF ABIOTIC STRESS ON PLANT HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

Abiotic stress is the most limiting factor for plant health and yield. Abiotic stresses such as temperature (high/low), salinity (due to excessive Na+), drought, flood, and soil contamination by heavy metals (Zn, Cd, Cu, Hg, Cr, etc.) are significant factors that affect plant physiology worldwide. Contamination of soils by heavy metals can disrupt numerous physiological and biochemical processes, including respiration, photosynthesis, nutrient uptake, protein, and nitrogen metabolism (Zhang et

PLANT GROWTH-PROMOTING FEATURES OF METHYLOTROPHS

Both extreme biotic and abiotic stress conditions are the most critical factors limiting plant growth and production. Many studies have reported that methylotrophs induce PGP activity under abiotic stress. Plants are massively exposed to environmental stress as well as stress created by microbial communities. Various studies on the genus Methylobacterium have been conducted to understand their numerous PGP attributes (Lidstrom and Chistoserdova, 2002; Grossi et al., 2020). It has been reported

Salinity stress

Globally, agriculture productivity is influenced by soil salinity, which affects 1 billion hectares of land in approximately 100 countries. In India, 20% of the irrigated agricultural land is being transformed into areas with excessive salinity (Ivushkin et al., 2018; Mann et al., 2020; Sahab et al., 2021). Immoderate salt content in soil causes salt stress on plants, which negatively influences crop productivity and leads to crop death. Thus, salinity is a severe environmental abiotic stress

CONCLUSIONS

The climate crisis is predicted to have a negative impact on agricultural productivity due to increasing temperature, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, affecting global food supply. The agriculture field is facing barriers in terms of crop growth, development, and yield, owing to abiotic stress from the environment such as high-low temperature, drought, flood, salinity, and heavy metals. Plants are susceptible to these adverse conditions, which affect plant physiology and morphology

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank UTU management and Director, CGBIBT, for their constant support and provision of necessary facilities. HG thanks the Government of Gujarat, India for granting the Ph.D. fellowship (SHODH).

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