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Review
. 2016 Apr 29;21(5):573.
doi: 10.3390/molecules21050573.

Role of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Agricultural Sustainability-A Review

Pravin Vejan  1 , Rosazlin Abdullah  2   3 , Tumirah Khadiran  4 , Salmah Ismail  5 , Amru Nasrulhaq Boyce  6   7
Affiliations
Review

Role of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Agricultural Sustainability-A Review

Pravin Vejan et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) shows an important role in the sustainable agriculture industry. The increasing demand for crop production with a significant reduction of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides use is a big challenge nowadays. The use of PGPR has been proven to be an environmentally sound way of increasing crop yields by facilitating plant growth through either a direct or indirect mechanism. The mechanisms of PGPR include regulating hormonal and nutritional balance, inducing resistance against plant pathogens, and solubilizing nutrients for easy uptake by plants. In addition, PGPR show synergistic and antagonistic interactions with microorganisms within the rhizosphere and beyond in bulk soil, which indirectly boosts plant growth rate. There are many bacteria species that act as PGPR, described in the literature as successful for improving plant growth. However, there is a gap between the mode of action (mechanism) of the PGPR for plant growth and the role of the PGPR as biofertilizer-thus the importance of nano-encapsulation technology in improving the efficacy of PGPR. Hence, this review bridges the gap mentioned and summarizes the mechanism of PGPR as a biofertilizer for agricultural sustainability.

Keywords: biofertilizer; nano-encapsulation technology; plant growth; plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR); plant-microbes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The phytohormone ethylene affects a large number of different processes in the growth and development of a plant.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The possible mode of action used by plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) towards growth promotion in plants. The flow and location of nitrogen fixation, phosphorus solubilization, and siderophore production are shown [83].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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