Abstract
The overgrowth of human population and the demand for high-quality foods necessitate the search for sustainable alternatives to increase crop production. The use of biofertilizers, mostly based on plant probiotic bacteria (PPB), represents a reliable and eco-friendly solution. This heterogeneous group of bacteria possesses many features with positive effects on plants; however, how these bacteria with each other and with the environment when released into a field has still barely been studied. In this review, we focused on the diversity of root endophytic rhizobial and non-rhizobial bacteria existing within plant root tissues, and also on their potential applications as consortia exerting benefits for plants and the environment. We demonstrated the benefits of using bacterial inoculant consortia instead of single-strain inoculants. We then critically discussed several considerations that farmers, companies, governments, and the scientific community should take into account when a biofertilizer based on those PPBs is proposed, including (i) a proper taxonomic identification, (ii) the characterization of the beneficial features of PPB strains, and (iii) the ecological impacts on plants, environment, and plant/soil microbiomes. Overall, the success of a PPB consortium depends on many factors that must be considered and analyzed before its application as a biofertilizer in an agricultural system.
Highlights
The overgrowth of human population and the demand for high-quality foods necessitate the search for sustainable alternatives to increase crop production
Here,levels, we focused on a subset of the plant thereduction bacteria displaying endophytic fertilizers in fields behavior from rhizobial and non-rhizobial origins; these are considered plant probiotic bacteria, since they promote
Rhizobia are a complex group of Gram-negative bacteria that live in the soil as saprophytes or in association with plants, as endophytes of inner plant tissues
Summary
Rhizobia are a complex group of Gram-negative bacteria that live in the soil as saprophytes or in association with plants, as endophytes of inner plant tissues. There is a plethora of previous work showing the beneficial effects of rhizobial strains on the growth and development of several non-legume crops, such as sorghum, lettuce, carrots, spinach, tomato, pepper, strawberries, barley, wheat, rice, and cotton, amongst others, improving in most of these crops the quality of both the edible and non-edible parts [52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60] The majority of these studies have shown the effects of these interactions only under laboratory- or greenhouse-controlled conditions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
