Perspectives and Challenges of Microbial Application for Crop Improvement

Abstract

Global population increases and climate change pose a challenge to worldwide crop production. There is a need to intensify agricultural production in a sustainable manner and to find solutions to combat abiotic stress, pathogens, and pests. Plants are associated with complex microbiomes, which have an ability to promote plant growth and stress tolerance, support plant nutrition, and antagonize plant pathogens. The integration of beneficial plant-microbe and microbiome interactions may represent a promising sustainable solution to improve agricultural production. The widespread commercial use of the plant beneficial microorganisms will require a number of issues addressed. Systems approach using microscale information technology for microbiome metabolic reconstruction has potential to advance the microbial reproducible application under natural conditions.

Keywords: biofertilizers; biopecticides; commercial application; plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR); systems biology.

Figure 1

Schematic overview of interactions between plant and soil microbiome.

Figure 2

A procedure for development of microbial product.

Figure 3

Worldwide market for biofertilizers by 2014 (Marketsandmarkets, 2014b).

Figure 4

Comparison of the market for synthetic pesticides and biopesticides (BCC Research, 2014).

Figure 5

Global biofertilizer market by product by 2012 (BCC Research, 2014).

Figure 6

Complex biological systems can be broken down to their component parts similar to traditional engineering disciplines. Adapted for the Bacillus thuringiensis AZP2 and wheat microbiome (Timmusk et al., 2014).

Figure 7

A framework for systems vaccinology (Source Pulendran et al., 2010).

Figure 8

The four-step model for metabolic systems biology. Adapted for the Bacillus thuringiensis AZP2 metabolic system (Timmusk et al., 2014).