Revisiting climate change impacts on plant growth and its mitigation with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria
Naeem Khan, Asif Mehmood
Abstract
• Impacts of ecological stresses on plant growth, yield, and biomass production. • Threats to plants due to increase in global population and desertification. • Environmental stresses in new habitats and adaptive shifts in plant communities. • Identification of stress related genes and its expression in the sensitive species. • Role of plant secondary metabolites and phytohormones in plant growth and defense. The ecological stresses result in plant growth and lead to defects in plant yield and biomass production. Increase in global population and desertification further accelerate this process and increase threats to the survival of plants and food supply to the growing world population. Therefore, new scientific approaches are needed to protect the sensitive plant species from rapidly increasing changes in climate. Identification of stress retorts genes and its expression in the sensitive species are now the area of intensive research. Multiple transcription factor (TF) families regulate the abiotic stress responses, abscisic acid (ABA) dependant and independent. Therefore, ABA is probably significant for adjusting identified responses to concurrent biotic and abiotic stressors. It is thought to be a novel strategy for plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) to produce osmolytes such as betaines, glycine, proline and trehalose more quickly than their associated host plants. The suitable solutes ingested by plant roots help maintain osmotic equilibrium and prevent cellular damage by oxidation under stressful circumstances. The endurance of plants to these stressors, however, depends on their environmental circumstances, genetic make-up, and the association interaction of these two factors. This study provides an outline of current research on the stress-responsive genes and their expression within the crop species, plant responses to environmental signals and the role of PGPR in climate change. Furthermore, it has been investigated to design crucial pathways involved in ion transport, oxidative defence mechanisms against pathogens and importation. How plants respond to temperature extremes, drought, salinity, heavy metals, nutrient deficiency, and biotic stresses is also discussed.