Microbiology for Sustainable Agriculture, Soil Health, and Environmental Protection

Deepak Kumar Verma

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781774635353
• eBook ISBN: 9781351247047
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Cell Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

With contributions from a broad range of experts in the field, this volume, Microbiology for Sustainable Agriculture, Soil Health, and Environmental Protection, focuses on important areas of microbiology related to soil and environmental microbiology associated with agricultural importance. The information and research on soil and environmental microbiology presented here seeks to act as a gateway to sustaining and improving agriculture and environmental security.

Part I focuses on soil microbiology, dealing extensively with studies on the isolation, culture, and use of Rhizobium spp. and mycorrhizae to improve soil fertility, plant growth, and yield. This includes research progress on biogeochemical cycles, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), microbial interactions in soil and other soil activities, microbial diversity in soil, biological control and bioremediation, and improvement of beneficial microorganisms (N2 fixers, phosphate solubilizers, etc.).

Part 2 goes on to focus on microbiology for crop disease management and pathogenic control in sustainable environment, with chapters on disease management of agricultural and horticultural crop plants through microbial control and how microbial control may a be a potential solution for a sustainability in agriculture. Part 3, Microbiology for Soil Health and Crop Productivity Improvement, features a chapter on the activity and mechanism of nitrogenase enzyme in soil, which is very important for soil health and crop production and productivity. Part 4 presents two chapters entirely devoted to the environmental pollution and its control, looking at the interaction of microbes in aqueous environments and eco-friendly approaches.

There is an urgent need to explore and investigate the current shortcomings and challenges of the current innovations and challenges in agricultural microbiology. This book helps to fill that need.

This volume will be valuable to those involved with agricultural microbiology, including students, instructors, and researchers.

PART 1

Microbiology for Sustainable Agriculture and Improved Production

CHAPTER 1

PLANT GROWTH-PROMOTING RHIZOBACTERIA: AN ECO-FRIENDLY APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND IMPROVED CROP PRODUCTION

DEEPAK KUMAR VERMA¹*, ABHAY K. PANDEY²*, BALARAM MOHAPATRA³*, SHIKHA SRIVASTAVA⁴, VIPUL KUMAR⁵, DIGANGGANA TALUKDAR⁶, RONI YULIANTO⁷, ALI TAN KEE ZUAN⁸*, ARPANA H. JOBANPUTRA⁹, and BAVITA ASTHIR¹⁰

¹Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India

²PHM-Division, National Institute of Plant Health Management, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Rajendranagar 500030 Hyderabad, Telangana, India

³Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India

⁴Department of Botany, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur 273009, Uttar Pradesh, India

⁵Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144411, Punjab, India

⁶Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, College of Horticulture Under College of Agricultural Engineering and Post-harvest Technology, Central Agricultural University, Ranipool 737135, East Sikkim, India

⁷Department of Grassland Ecology, Development of Technology Science, International Development Education and Cooperation (IDEC), Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

⁸Department of Land Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

⁹Department of Microbiology, PSGVPM’s, SIP Arts, GBP Science & STSKVS Commerce College, Shahada 425409, District Nandurbar, Maharashtra, India

¹⁰Department of Biochemistry, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana 141004, Punjab, India

^*Corresponding authors. E-mail: [email protected]/ [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Since ancient time, microbial utilization for plant improvements has been carried out (Bhattacharyya and Jha, 2012). The application of microbes to improve the plant nutrients availability is a vital practice and needed for agriculture ecosystem (Freitas et al., 2007). In the recent years, the use of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) for sustainable agriculture has increased globally since it has the abilities to release beneficial phytohormones (Table 1.1 and Fig. 1.1) to promote crop physiological growth and development. In addition to producing chemical substances, PGPRs are also known for their other important functional mechanisms in crop plants (Table 1.2). Foundation of plant growth–promoting bacteria application in agriculture has been started when Theophrastus (372–287 BC) recommended mixing of different soil samples to eliminate defects by which that soil life could sustain longer (Tisdale and Nelson, 1975). Certainly, after the invention of microscope, the technical approach behind it became clear. PGPRs are root bacteria colonizing plant’s rhizosphere that could improve plant growth through various mechanisms such as solubilization of phosphate, quorum sensing, nitrogen fixation, etc. (Bhattacharyya and Jha, 2012). PGPRs are bacterial species that are associated with the plant rhizosphere and have beneficial effect on plant’s growth and crop yield. The “PGPR” term was suggested by Kloepper and Schroth (1978) to assemble rhizospheric bacteria that have multiple beneficial effects on plant growth in which they act together with the plant host and enhance their nutrient uptake by different mode (Fig. 1.2) (Vessey, 2003). Such effects in various plants are increased in vigor, nutrients uptake, biomass, yield, early seedling emergence, enhancement of root proliferation, and so on (Kloepper, 1993; Tan et al., 2014). PGPR has a high potential to be used as a substitute of chemical fertilizers; thus, the market demand is high. PGPR is also used as biocontrol agents, and the ineffectiveness of PGPR in the field have often been accredited to their inability to colonize plant roots (Bloemberg and Lugtenberg, 2001). PGPRs are also referred as nodule-promoting rhizobacteria or plant health–promoting rhizobacteria and are associated with the rhizosphere which is a key soil ecological environment for plant–microbe interactions (Hayat et al., 2010). The PGPR includes both endophytic and free-living bacteria in plant root systems that cause imperceptible and asymptomatic infections (Sturz and Nowak, 2000). These significant evidences are promising for a paradigm move for a more microbial dominated or at least highly mutual view of the association between plant and microbiota. In this chapter, we describe the important PGPR species and their mode of action/application/role in improving sustainable agriculture.

TABLE 1.1 PGPR Produce Growth-promoting Chemical Substances for Agricultural Crops.

ACCD, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase; EPS, exo-polysaccharides; HCN, hydrogen cyanide; IAA, indole-3-acetic acid; PGPR, plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria; Azos., Azospirillum; Azot., Azotobacter; B., Bacillus; Brad., Bradyrhizobium; E., Enterobacter; Kle., Klebsiella; Klu., Kluyvera; M., Mesorhizobium; Pae., Paenibacillus; P., Pseudomonas; Rah., Rahnella; Rhi., Rhizobium; Ser., Serratia; St., Stenotrophomonas; V., Variovorax.

FIGURE 1.1 Structure of chemical substances produced by plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) for growth promotion of agricultural crops. (A) Ammonia, (B) hydrogen cyanide (HCN), (C) indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), (D) cytokinin, (E) gibberellin, (F) kinetin, and (G) exo-polysaccharides structure of Rhizobium spp. [(a) R. leguminosarum (Source: Adapted from Robertsen et al., 1981; McNeil et al., 1986; O’Neil et al., 1991; Dudman et al., 1983); (b) R. tropici CIAT899 (Source: Adapted from Gil-Serrano et al., 1990); (c) Rhizobium sp. strain NGR234 (Source: Adapted from Djordjevic et al., 1986); (d) R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii 4S (Source: Adapted from Amemura et al., 1983); and (e) R. leguminosarum bv. viciae 248 (Source: Adapted from Canter-Cremers et al., 1991) in which Glc: glucose, Gal: galactose, and GlcA: glucuronic acid].

TABLE 1.2 Important Direct and Indirect Functional Mechanisms of PGPR Strains in Crop Plants.

PGPR, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria.

FIGURE 1.2 Mode of PGPR to enhance the nutrient uptake in host plants. (Source: Adapted from Vessey, 2003)

1.2 SOIL—AS DYNAMIC MEDIUM FOR MICROORGANISMS

Soil is a complex environment offering a variety of microhabitats for which microbial diversity in soil is much greater than that found in other environments. Each climate and soil type contains a microbial community precisely adapted to that specific habitat. Many microbes inhabit the pores between soil particles; others live in association with plants. The plant root surface (rhizoplane) and the region close to plant roots (rhizosphere) are important sites for microbial growth. It has been found that the microbial diversity in this rhizosphere region is much higher and has agricultural attention due to its beneficial way of making agriculture sustainable (Bonaterra et al., 2003). The rhizosphere is the soil–plant root interface and consists of the soil adhering to the root and its surrounding parts (Babalola, 2010) in which very significant and rigorous interactions are taking place between soil, microorganisms, and plant roots. The microbes found in this zone are known to be called plant root colonizing microorganisms. Many types of plant and microbe interaction occur in this zone (commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism), but in all cases, the microbe and the plant have established the capacity to communicate with each other. Plants secrete chemical compounds (high and low molecular weight) from their roots, termed as root exuda...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Editor
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Part 1: Microbiology for Sustainable Agriculture and Improved Production
• Part 2: Microbiology for Crop Disease Management and Pathogenic Control in Sustainable Environments
• Part 3: Microbiology for Soil Health and Crop Productivity Improvement
• Part 4: Microbiology for Environmental Security and Pollution Control
• Index