Seed biopriming: A comprehensive towards agricultural sustainability*

摘要

Plants and microorganism are involved in a continuous network of interactions, some of those beneficial to the plants and some are detrimental. There is a rising demand for intervention of ecologically safe and sound, environmentally compatible techniques in crop production which will provide global food security and improved agricultural produces. To accomplish this goal, application of agriculturally beneficial microorganisms is a potential alternative to traditional agricultural techniques which have severely damaged the agro-ecosystem (Abhilash etal., 2016). Potential of agriculturally important microorganisms to reduce or replace the agrochemicals has been so far evaluated. Beneficial microorganisms including biological control agents (BCAs), plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs) and fungi (PGPFs) and endophytes play a crucial role in sustainable crop production. These microorganisms provide growth promotion, crop protection and abiotic stress mitigation by the direct application. In the last decades various genera of PGPR have been identified and their application as biofertilizer and biocontrol agent has seen a great boost. Various species of bacteria including Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Azospirillum, Serratia, Azotobacter, Enterobacter,Klebsiella, Alcaligenes and Burkholderia have been reported as potential biocontrol agents, biofertilizers and biostimulants (Keswani et al., 2014, 2015a). Various bacteria which are predominantly investigated and successfully commercialized as the biological control agents are Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis, Agrobacterium radiobacter, Serratia marcescens, Streptomyces griseoviridis and Burkholderia cepacia. They suppress plant pathogens in soil through production of antibiotics and siderophores and suppress plant diseases through induction of defense response (Bisen et al., 2015; Keswani et al., 2015b; Singh, 2014). In addition to influencing plant health and growth, these beneficial microorganisms also strengthen the survival of plants for tolerating biotic and abiotic stress, increase uptakeand nutrient availability, and improve the soil microflora diversity.