Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security

Climate change and agriculture are intrinsically connected and sudden changes in climatic conditions adversely impact global food production and security. The climate change-linked abiotic stressors like drought and high temperatures are resulting in crop failure. The most severe abiotic stress drou...

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Main Authors: Satish Kumar, Satyavir Singh Sindhu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-01-01
Series:Current Research in Microbial Sciences
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666517424000683
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author Satish Kumar
Satyavir Singh Sindhu
author_facet Satish Kumar
Satyavir Singh Sindhu
author_sort Satish Kumar
collection DOAJ
description Climate change and agriculture are intrinsically connected and sudden changes in climatic conditions adversely impact global food production and security. The climate change-linked abiotic stressors like drought and high temperatures are resulting in crop failure. The most severe abiotic stress drought significantly affect the stomatal closure, production of reactive oxygen species, transpiration, photosynthesis or other physiological processes and plant morphology, and adversely affect plant growth and crop yield. Therefore, there is an exigent need for cost effective and eco-friendly modern technologies to induce drought tolerance in crop plants leading to climate-adapted sustainable agricultural practices for sustained food production. Among many options being pursued in this regard, the use of plant growth promoting microbes (PGPMs) is the most sustainable approach to promote drought stress resilience in crop plants leading to better plant growth and crop productivity. These PGPMs confer drought resistance via various direct or indirect mechanisms including production of antioxidants, enzymes, exopolysaccharides, modulation of phytohormones level, osmotic adjustment by inducing the accumulation of sugars, along with increases in nutrients, water uptake and photosynthetic pigments. However, several technological and ecological challenges limit their use in agriculture and sometimes treatment with plant beneficial microbes fails to produce desired results under field conditions. Thus, development of synthetic microbial communities or host mediated microbiome engineering or development of transgenic plants with the capacity to express desired traits may promote plant survival and growth under drought stress conditions. The present review critically assesses research evidence on the plant growth and stress resilience promoting potentials of PGPMs and their genes as an approach to develop drought resilient plants leading to increased crop productivity. Effective collaboration among scientific communities, policymakers and regulatory agencies is needed to create strong frameworks that both promote and regulate the utilization of synthetic microbial communities and transgenic plants in agriculture.
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spelling doaj-art-ebb93ceede2d431ca8dba95db2325d002025-08-20T02:38:32ZengElsevierCurrent Research in Microbial Sciences2666-51742024-01-01710028510.1016/j.crmicr.2024.100285Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food securitySatish Kumar0Satyavir Singh Sindhu1Department of Microbiology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125004, IndiaCorresponding author.; Department of Microbiology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, 125004, IndiaClimate change and agriculture are intrinsically connected and sudden changes in climatic conditions adversely impact global food production and security. The climate change-linked abiotic stressors like drought and high temperatures are resulting in crop failure. The most severe abiotic stress drought significantly affect the stomatal closure, production of reactive oxygen species, transpiration, photosynthesis or other physiological processes and plant morphology, and adversely affect plant growth and crop yield. Therefore, there is an exigent need for cost effective and eco-friendly modern technologies to induce drought tolerance in crop plants leading to climate-adapted sustainable agricultural practices for sustained food production. Among many options being pursued in this regard, the use of plant growth promoting microbes (PGPMs) is the most sustainable approach to promote drought stress resilience in crop plants leading to better plant growth and crop productivity. These PGPMs confer drought resistance via various direct or indirect mechanisms including production of antioxidants, enzymes, exopolysaccharides, modulation of phytohormones level, osmotic adjustment by inducing the accumulation of sugars, along with increases in nutrients, water uptake and photosynthetic pigments. However, several technological and ecological challenges limit their use in agriculture and sometimes treatment with plant beneficial microbes fails to produce desired results under field conditions. Thus, development of synthetic microbial communities or host mediated microbiome engineering or development of transgenic plants with the capacity to express desired traits may promote plant survival and growth under drought stress conditions. The present review critically assesses research evidence on the plant growth and stress resilience promoting potentials of PGPMs and their genes as an approach to develop drought resilient plants leading to increased crop productivity. Effective collaboration among scientific communities, policymakers and regulatory agencies is needed to create strong frameworks that both promote and regulate the utilization of synthetic microbial communities and transgenic plants in agriculture.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666517424000683DroughtPlant growth promoting microbesPhytohormone modulationOsmolytes productionAntioxidantsGenetic engineering
spellingShingle Satish Kumar
Satyavir Singh Sindhu
Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security
Current Research in Microbial Sciences
Drought
Plant growth promoting microbes
Phytohormone modulation
Osmolytes production
Antioxidants
Genetic engineering
title Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security
title_full Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security
title_fullStr Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security
title_full_unstemmed Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security
title_short Drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security
title_sort drought stress mitigation through bioengineering of microbes and crop varieties for sustainable agriculture and food security
topic Drought
Plant growth promoting microbes
Phytohormone modulation
Osmolytes production
Antioxidants
Genetic engineering
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666517424000683
work_keys_str_mv AT satishkumar droughtstressmitigationthroughbioengineeringofmicrobesandcropvarietiesforsustainableagricultureandfoodsecurity
AT satyavirsinghsindhu droughtstressmitigationthroughbioengineeringofmicrobesandcropvarietiesforsustainableagricultureandfoodsecurity