Plant Microbiome for Improving Productivity and Resilience of Crops
Elisa Pellegrino* and Valentina Marrassini
CBioLabs, Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy
*Corresponding Author: Elisa Pellegrino, BioLabs, Institute of Life Sciences, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy.
Received: July 05, 2021; Published: August 09, 2021
Agriculture has to provide increased yields to feed the growing global population, which is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 [1]. In 2010-2012, 12.5% of the world population, about 7.6 billion population, was estimated to be malnourished [2]. Agricultural yields are limited and made unpredictable by abiotic and biotic stresses. As example, fungal pathogens of wheat alone are estimated to cause yield losses of up to 29%, and other pathogens and various abiotic threats, such as flooding, drought and soil fertility, are causing further reduction of productions [3]. Moreover, climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and severity of these threats [4]. Thus, agro-ecological challenges of the 21st century should be the minimization of the threat of pathogens and abiotic stresses and the reduction of the negative environmental impacts on agriculture through a sustainable intensification of management under fluctuating and unpredictable conditions [5]. The challenge to sustainable intensified agriculture practices is the deep exploitation of the plant microbiome both in the endosphere and rhizosphere in order to define strategies for the application of endophytes, symbionts and other beneficial microorganisms to agricultural systems [6]. However, an overlooked aspect is the negative impact of agrotechnical interventions, such as intensive tillage and chemical treatments, on plant microbiome.
- Desa U. “World population prospects: The 2015 revision, key findings and advance tables”. Working PaperNo. ISO 690 (2015).
- Fao F. “Agriculture Organization of the United Nations”. 2012. FAO statistical yearbook. ISO 690 (2012).
- Oerke EC and Dehne HW. “Safeguarding production—losses in major crops and the role of crop protection”. Crop Protection 23 (2004): 275-285.
- Vallebona C., et al. “Temporal trends in extreme rainfall intensity and erosivity in the Mediterranean region: a case study in southern Tuscany, Italy”. Climatic Change 128 (2015): 139-151.
- Sharma HS., et al. “Plant biostimulants: a review on the processing of macroalgae and use of extracts for crop management to reduce abiotic and biotic stresses”. Journal of Applied Phycology 26 (2014): 465-490.
- Arif I., et al. “Plant Microbiome Engineering: Expected Benefits for Improved Crop Growth and Resilience”. Trends in Biotechnology 38 (2020): 1385-1396.
- Carvalhais LC., et al. “Plant growth in Arabidopsis is assisted by compost soil-derived microbial communities”. Frontiers in Plant Science 4 (2013): 235.
- Rojas-Solís D., et al. “Pseudomonas stutzeri E25 and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia CR71 endophytes produce antifungal volatile organic compounds and exhibit additive plant growth-promoting effects”. Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology 13 (2018): 46-52.
- Vyas P., et al. “Screening and characterization of Achromobacter xylosoxidans isolated from rhizosphere of Jatropha curcas L. (energy crop) for plant-growth-promoting traits”. Journal of Advanced Research in Biotechnology 3 (2018): 1-8.
- Pellegrino E., et al. “Agricultural abandonment in Mediterranean reclaimed peaty soils: long-term effects on soil chemical properties, arbuscular mycorrhizas and CO2 flux”. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 199 (2015): 164-175.
- Ciccolini V., et al. “Phylogenetic and multivariate analyses to determine the effect of agricultural land-use intensification and soil physico-chemical properties on N-cycling microbial communities in drained Mediterranean peaty soils”. Biology and Fertility of Soils 52 (2016): 811-824.
- Piazza, G., et al. “Interaction Between Conservation Tillage and Nitrogen Fertilization Shapes Prokaryotic and Fungal Diversity at Different Soil Depths: Evidence From a 23-Year Field Experiment in the Mediterranean Area”. Frontiers in Microbiology 10 (2019): 2047.
- Santoyo G., et al. “Plant growth-promoting bacterial endophytes”. Microbiological Research 183 (2016): 92-99.
- Philippot L., et al. “Going back to the roots: the microbial ecology of the rhizosphere”. Nature Reviews Microbiology 11 (2013): 789-799.
- Hardoim PR., et al. “Properties of bacterial endophytes and their proposed role in plant growth”. Trends in Microbiology 16 (2008): 463-471.
- Xia Y., et al. “Characterization of culturable bacterial endophytes and their capacity to promote plant growth from plants grown using organic or conventional practices”. Frontiers in Plant Science 6 (2015): 490.
- Hu L., et al. “Root exudate metabolites drive plant-soil feedbacks on growth and defense by shaping the rhizosphere microbiota”. Nature Communications 9 (2018): 1-13.
- Vives-Peris V., et al. “Root exudates: from plant to rhizosphere and beyond”. Plant Cell Reports (2019): 1-15.