Psychrotrophic Microbes: Biodiversity, Mechanisms of Adaptation, and Biotechnological Implications in Alleviation of Cold Stress in Plants

Abstract

Psychrotrophic microbes from the cold habitats have been reported worldwide. The psychrotrophic microbes from diverse cold habitats have biotechnological potential applications in agriculture as they can possess different direct and indirect plant growth-promoting (PGP) attributes such as solubilization of micronutrients (P, K, and Zn), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase production, Fe-chelating compounds, indole-3-acetic acid, and bioactive compounds. Psychrophilic and psychrotrophic microbes are ubiquitous in nature and have been reported worldwide from various cold environments. The microbial communities from cold deserts have been reported using both culture-dependent techniques and metagenomic techniques, which belong to diverse major groups, viz., Verrucomicrobia, Thaumarchaeota, Spirochaetes, Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Nitrospirae, Mucoromycota, Gemmatimonadetes, Firmicutes, Euryarchaeota, Cyanobacteria, Chloroflexi, Chlamydiae, Basidiomycota, Bacteroidetes, Ascomycota, and Actinobacteria. Cold-adapted microbes, isolated from the low-temperature condition, are belonging to different genera such as Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Exiguobacterium, Paenibacillus, Providencia, Pseudomonas, and Serratia. On review of different research, it was found that inoculation with psychrotrophic strains significantly enhanced plant growth, crop yield, and soil fertility. The present book chapter deals with the biodiversity of psychrotrophic or cold-adapted microbes from diverse cold habitats, and their potential biotechnological applications in agriculture have been discussed.