Rhizosphere Engineering is a guide to applying environmentally sound agronomic practices to improve crop yield while also protecting soil resources. Focusing on the potential and positive impacts of appropriate practices, the book includes the use of beneficial microbes, nanotechnology and metagenomics. Developing and applying techniques that not only enhance yield, but also restore the quality of soil and water using beneficial microbes such as Bacillus, Pseudomonas, vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) fungi and others are covered, along with new information on utilizing nanotechnology, quorum sensing and other technologies to further advance the science. Designed to fill the gap between research and application, this book is written for advanced students, researchers and those seeking real-world insights for improving agricultural production. - Explores the potential benefits of optimized rhizosphere - Includes metagenomics and their emerging importance - Presents insights into the use of biosurfactants
The use of biocontrol agents and beneficial organisms for management of plant and pest diseases appears as an environment-friendly and economic procedure. However, this option is not always available, depending on the lack of knowledge on the mechanisms of natural regulation, locally effective. In this view, this eBook considers studies and experimental works illustrating a range of problems and solutions based on microbial resources, suitable for management of biotic stress factors. These examples show how detailed data and knowledge on the organisms involved are of paramount importance to achieve a sustainable and durable management capability.
New and Future Developments in Microbial Biotechnology and Bioengineering: Trends of Microbial Biotechnology for Sustainable Agriculture and Biomedicine Systems: Diversity and Functional Perspectives describes how specific techniques can be used to generalize the metabolism of bacteria that optimize biologic improvement strategies and bio-transport processes. Microbial biotechnology focuses on microbes of agricultural, environmental, industrial, and clinical significance. This volume discusses several methods based on molecular genetics, systems, and biology of synthetic, genomic, proteomic, and metagenomics. Recent developments in our understanding of the role of microbes in sustainable agriculture and biotechnology have created a highly potential research area. The soil and plant microbiomes have a significant role in plant growth promotion, crop yield, soil health and fertility for sustainable developments. The microbes provide nutrients and stimulate plant growth through different mechanisms, including solubilization of phosphorus, potassium, and zinc; biological nitrogen fixation; production of siderophore, ammonia, HCN and other secondary metabolites which are antagonistic against pathogenic microbes. This new book provides an indispensable reference source for engineers/bioengineers, biochemists, biotechnologists, microbiologists, agrochemists, and researchers who want to know about the unique properties of this microbe and explore its sustainable agriculture future applications. - Introduces the principles of microbial biotechnology and its application in plant growth and soil health for sustainable agriculture - Explores various plant microbiomes and their beneficial impact on plant growth for crop improvement - Explains the mechanisms of plant-microbe interaction and plant growth promotion - Includes current applications of microbial consortium for enhance production of crop in eco-friendly manners
Plant Perspectives to Global Climate Changes: Developing Climate-Resilient Plants reviews and integrates currently available information on the impact of the environment on functional and adaptive features of plants from the molecular, biochemical and physiological perspectives to the whole plant level. The book also provides a direction towards implementation of programs and practices that will enable sustainable production of crops resilient to climatic alterations. This book will be beneficial to academics and researchers working on stress physiology, stress proteins, genomics, proteomics, genetic engineering, and other fields of plant physiology. Advancing ecophysiological understanding and approaches to enhance plant responses to new environmental conditions is critical to developing meaningful high-throughput phenotyping tools and maintaining humankind's supply of goods and services as global climate change intensifies. - Illustrates the central role for plant ecophysiology in applying basic research to address current and future challenges for humans - Brings together global leaders working in the area of plant-environment interactions and shares research findings - Presents current scenarios and future plans of action for the management of stresses through various approaches
This book discusses the most challenging task ahead of researchers from India and around the globe: providing disease-free field crops for the ever-growing world population. In Asia, despite being cultivated in massive volumes, major crops, including cereals, oil seed, tuber and non-tuber vegetables, and fruit, are not meeting the demands of the increasing population. This book showcases naturally occurring beneficial microbes in the form of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, or PGPR, which make it possible to grow field crops without applying synthetic chemicals. Our understanding of PGPR has increased exponentially in recent decades. They play a multifarious role in developing sustainable systems of crop production and protection. The book focuses on the mechanistic behaviors of PGPRs, their use to develop sustainable cultivation techniques, and their application to enhance crop growth and productivity at the cutting edge of tech-oriented agriculture and to replace hazardous chemicals with microbial inoculants. The book is useful to agronomists, microbiologists, ecologists, plant pathologists, molecular biologists, environmentalists, policy makers, conservationists, and NGOs working on organically grown field crops.
This book provides a straightforward and easy-to-understand overview of beneficial plant-bacterial interactions. It features a wealth of unique illustrations to clarify the text, and each chapter includes study questions that highlight the important points, as well as references to key experiments. Since the publication of the first edition of Beneficial Plant-Bacterial Interactions, in 2015, there has been an abundance of new discoveries in this area, and in recent years, scientists around the globe have begun to develop a relatively detailed understanding of many of the mechanisms used by bacteria that facilitate plant growth and development. This knowledge is gradually becoming an integral component of modern agricultural practice, with more and more plant growth-promoting bacterial strains being commercialized and used successfully in countries throughout the world. In addition, as the world’s population continues to grow, the pressure for increased food production will intensify, while at the same time, environmental concerns, mean that environmentally friendly methods of food production will need to replace many traditional agricultural practices such as the use of potentially dangerous chemicals. The book, intended for students, explores the fundamentals of this new paradigm in agriculture, horticulture, and environmental cleanup.
This book presents state-of-the-art research on the many facets of the plant microbiome, including diversity, ecology, physiology and genomics, as well as molecular mechanisms of plant-microbe interactions. Topics considered include the importance of microbial secondary metabolites in stimulating plant growth, induced systemic resistance, tolerance to abiotic stress, and biological control of plant pathogens. The respective contributions show how microbes help plants to cope with abiotic stresses, and represent significant progress toward understanding the complex regulatory networks critical to host-microbe interaction and plant adaptation in extreme environments. New insights into the mechanisms of microbial actions in inducing plant stress tolerance open new doors for improving the efficacy of microbial strategies, and could produce new ways of economically increasing crop yields without harming the environment. As such, this book offers an essential resource for students and researchers with an interest in plant-microbe interaction, as well as several possibilities for employing the plant microbiome in the enhancement of crop productivity under future climate change scenarios.
Microbes and their biosynthetic capabilities have been invaluable in finding solutions for several intractable problems mankind has encountered in maintaining the quality of the environment. They have, for example, been used to positive effect in human and animal health, genetic engineering, environmental protection, and municipal and industrial waste treatment. Microorganisms have enabled feasible and cost-effective responses which would have been impossible via straightforward chemical or physical engineering methods. Microbial technologies have of late been applied to a range of environmental problems, with considerable success. This survey of recent scientific progress in usefully applying microbes to both environmental management and biotechnology is informed by acknowledgement of the polluting effects on the world around us of soil erosion, the unwanted migration of sediments, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the improper treatment of human and animal wastes. These harmful phenomena have resulted in serious environmental and social problems around the world, problems which require us to look for solutions elsewhere than in established physical and chemical technologies. Often the answer lies in hybrid applications in which microbial methods are combined with physical and chemical ones. When we remember that these highly effective microorganisms, cultured for a variety of applications, are but a tiny fraction of those to be found in the world around us, we realize the vastness of the untapped and beneficial potential of microorganisms. At present, comprehending the diversity of hitherto uncultured microbes involves the application of metagenomics, with several novel microbial species having been discovered using culture-independent approaches. Edited by recognized leaders in the field, this penetrating assessment of our progress to date in deploying microorganisms to the advantage of environmental management and biotechnology will be widely welcomed.
Endophytes are the plant symbionts that live inside the plant tissue without causing any symptoms of disease for a part of their life-cycle, as compared to the rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbes that live on the plant’s surface, and pathogens that cause disease. Bacteria and fungi are the two most common groups that are included in endophytes. They find their way into plants’ endosphere to become extremely important plant symbionts that improve metabolite profile, fitness and stress tolerance of the host. Endophytes are an important untapped reservoir of biological resources. During the last few decades, endophytes have attracted scientists working in the field of agriculture, environment and industry due to the possibilities of diverse biotechnological applications in such fields. Endophytes promote plant growth by improving the physiological and metabolic functions of the host plants via nutrient acquisition, nitrogen fixation, phytohormone production, enhancing abiotic/biotic stress tolerance, and disease resistance. These benefits conferred by the endophytes can be used to promote agriculture yield and food quality. In addition endophytes are known to produce novel antibiotics; secondary metabolites including alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, phenolic acids, quinines; siderophores; and enzymes such as chitinases and cellulases. These natural compounds have use in pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries. Endophytes have usage in biodegradation, bioextraction or bioaccumulation of environmental pollutants. They also have potential application in enhanced phytoremediation. More recently, endophytic bacteria and fungi have also been used for the green synthesis of nanoparticles for different medical and industrial applications. Functional genomics studies of endophytes provided more information and better understanding of network of the complex host-endophyte interactions and other associated microbes to harness the biotechnological potential of endophytes more efficiently and sustainably.