Abstract

Plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) constitute diverse genera of nonpathogenic fungi that provide a variety of benefits to their host plants. PGPF show an effective role in sustainable agriculture. Meeting increasing demand for crop production without damage to the environment is the biggest challenge nowadays. The use of PGPF has been recognized as an environmentally friendly way of increasing crop production. These fungi have proven to increase crop yields by improving germination, seedling vigor, plant growth, root morphogenesis, photosynthesis, and flowering through either a direct or indirect mechanism. The mechanisms of PGPF involve solubilizing and mineralizing nutrients for easy uptake by plants, regulating hormonal balance, producing volatile organic compounds and microbial enzyme, suppressing plant pathogens and ameliorating abiotic stresses. Successful colonization is an intrinsic factor for most PGPF to exert their beneficial effects on plants. A certain level of specificity exists in the interactions between plant species and PGPF for root colonization and growth promoting effects. There is a gap between the number of reported efficacious PGPF and the number of PGPF as biofertilizer. Efforts should be strengthened to improve the efficacy and commercialization of PGPF. Hence, this chapter summarizes valuable information regarding the application and mechanisms of PGPF in sustainable agriculture.

Highlights

  • Plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF) encompass a diverse taxonomic group in comparison to mycorrhiza. They are often involved in a range of complex interactions with plants and develop distinct strategies to mediate improvements in seed germination, seedling vigor, plant growth, flowering and productivity of host plants (Figure 1)

  • Sphaerodes mycoparasitica, a biotrophic mycoparasite of Fusarium species, improved wheat seed germination and seedling growth in vitro compared to T. harzianum, while under phytotron conditions, both S. mycoparasitica and T. harzianum had positive impact on wheat seedlings growth in the presence of F. graminearum [12]. These results show the positive impact of PGPF on seed germination and seedlings growth of a wide arrays of hosts

  • The beneficial association of plants with nonpathogenic binucleate Rhizoctonia spp. resulted in increase in yield of carrot, lettuce, cucumber, cotton, radish, wheat, tomato, Chinese mustard and potato [13, 45, 46]. These results demonstrate that PGPF hold great promise in the improvement of agriculture yields

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Summary

Introduction

The world’s population exceeded ~7 billion just after 2010, and still continues to grow fast. A variety of direct and indirect mechanisms, including solubilization of minerals, synthesis of phytohormones, production of volatile organic compounds, exploitation of microbial enzymes, increases in nutrient uptake, amelioration of abiotic stresses and suppression of deleterious phytopathogens are involved. These wide arrays of interconnected mechanisms help PGPF maintaining rhizosphere competence and stability in host performance. PGPF encompass a diverse taxonomic group in comparison to mycorrhiza They are often involved in a range of complex interactions with plants and develop distinct strategies to mediate improvements in seed germination, seedling vigor, plant growth, flowering and productivity of host plants (Figure 1). PGPF are considered one of the potential active ingredients in both biofertilizer and mycofungicide formulation

The nature and composition of PGPF
Impact of PGPF on plant growth promotion
Impact of PGPF on seed germination and seedling vigor
Impact of PGPF on shoot growth
Impact of PGPF on photosynthesis
Impact of PGPF on root growth and architecture
Impact of PGPF on flowering
Impact of PGPF on yield
Duration of sustained plant growth promotion effect by PGPF
Host specificity of the plant growth-promoting cooperation
Mechanisms of plant growth promotion
Phosphate solubilization
Substrate degradation (mineralization)
Phytohormone production
Microbial ACC deaminase
Suppression of deleterious microorganisms by PGPF
Rhizoremediation and stress control
Production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Pattern and process of root colonization by PGPF
Formulation of PGPF
Findings
10. Conclusions

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