The Azospirillum genus and the cultivation of vegetables. A review

Eduardo Pradi Vendruscolo,Sebastião Ferreira De Lima

doi:10.25518/1780-4507.19175

Abstract

Introduction. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria have been successfully inserted in agriculture, aiming to find a better balance between agricultural production and environmental protection. However, there is a restriction on its application concerning the exploited species since the focus is on large-scale grain production, practically excluding small and medium-sized farms. Literature. Studies on the application of Azospirillum bacteria in horticultural species are still scarce, compared with those aimed at grain production. However, it appears that these bacteria are beneficial to the development and production of vegetables, whether they produce leaves, stems, bulbs, flowers, fruits, roots, or tubers, and may result in monetary gains, especially for small and medium agricultural producers. Conclusions. The use of Azospirillum bacteria to increase the quality and quantity of products from horticultural species and establish an environmentally friendly practice is a reality. However, the development of research that defines the best strategies for using this technology must be carried out continuously, aiming at the best conditions for producers.

Highlights

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria have been successfully inserted in agriculture, aiming to find a better balance between agricultural production and environmental protection
This review aims to compile results and discussions about the use of bacteria of the Azospirillum genus in vegetables, focusing on their applicability and impact on the productive sector
78 scientific papers were listed (92.4% with up to 10 years and 7.6% with more than 10 years of publication, until 2021), which were selected according to the relevance to the topic addressed in the research. We selected those that reported the use of bacteria of the Azospirillum genus in horticultural species, which may contain results obtained in the field or controlled environments

Summary

Introduction

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria have been successfully inserted in agriculture, aiming to find a better balance between agricultural production and environmental protection. Studies on the application of Azospirillum bacteria in horticultural species are still scarce, compared with those aimed at grain production It appears that these bacteria are beneficial to the development and production of vegetables, whether they produce leaves, stems, bulbs, flowers, fruits, roots, or tubers, and may result in monetary gains, especially for small and medium agricultural producers. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria have been the constant focus of research to reduce production costs, increase yield, and promote plant and environmental protection by reducing the supply of chemical fertilizers. These assumptions have been confirmed by countless studies developed over the past decades, most of them focused on grain production, mainly of grass species (Fukami et al, 2018; Leite et al, 2019). These bacteria affect plant development through hormonal changes, or even providing resistance to weather conditions through the set of effects (Cássan & Diaz-Zorita, 2016; Sahu et al, 2017; Silva et al, 2019), in addition to enabling the activation of different structural, biochemical and molecular mechanisms (Guerrero-Molina et al, 2014)

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