Life of microbes that interact with plants

Abstract

Microorganisms are key players in many biogeochemical processes and they strongly affect the health of soils and plants in many ways. Microbes are responsible for many soil activities, including decomposing dead plant tissues as saprophytes, but they can also attack living plants and cause plant diseases with great economic losses. On the other hand, some microbes can also protect crop plants against their pathogens and can improve the nutritional status of the plant (Bloemberg and Lugtenberg, 2001). This special issue of Microbial Biotechnology addresses the diverse ways in which knowledge of plant‐associated microorganisms can be applied to benefit agriculture, industry and the environment. Manipulation of microbial properties and modifications in microbial populations in the plant rhizosphere may lead to new interesting and exciting approaches for disease control and plant growth promotion. Biochemical characterization of the molecular mechanisms involved in plant–microbe interactions is uncovering chemicals and enzymes with a wide range of industrial applications. Finally, plant‐associated microorganisms can have ecosystem‐level effects on plants and soil, which can be exploited to improve soil quality, enhance carbon sequestration and to achieve bioremediation of pollutants, such as hydrocarbons and toxic metals. Many of the fields, in which knowledge about plant–microbe interactions have been applied, are reviewed in this issue by Wu and co‐workers (2009), including applications in biofertilization, plant disease control, production of bioactive compounds, remediation and carbon sequestration.