Association of Silicon and Soil Microorganisms Induces Stress Mitigation, Increasing Plant Productivity
Krishan K. Verma, Xiu‐Peng Song, Munna Singh, Dandan Tian, Vishnu D. Rajput, Tatiana Minkina, Yang‐Rui Li
Abstract
The application of silicon (Si) and its interaction with soil microorganisms stimulate plant growth, development, and productivity, improving crops and ensuring sustainable agriculture. Accordingly, plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPBs) have recently been used to establish plant-microbe interactions that are environmentally friendly to mitigate abiotic and biotic stress. Si extends the benefits of PGPBs by accelerating plant growth and development, as it does not offer danger to crops, and being pollution-free even when applied at higher concentrations, depending on the application procedure. The rhizospheric microbiome accommodates a variety of microbial species that live in a small area of soil directly associated with plant roots. The interaction of these microbes with plants may be commensal, helpful, or harmful. However, the promotion of plant growth by using soil microbiome has demonstrated enormous potential for providing an environmentally friendly option to the world’s rapidly growing population to meet the increasing food demands while alleviating the associated environmental and societal issues linked with large-scale food production, security, and safety. Therefore, this chapter describes the benefits of Si and plant-microbial interactions in agro-ecosystems. In this context, our aim is focused on the interactions of Si and plant microbes, which may improve the sustainability of agricultural crop systems in the future, improving plant performance in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the globe for future generations.