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Drought tolerance improvement in plants: an endophytic bacterial approach

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Abstract

Climate change is a crucial issue among the serious emerging problems which got a global attention in the last few decades. With the climate change, worldwide crop production has been seriously affected by drought stress. In this regard, various technologies including traditional breeding and genetic engineering are used to cope with drought stress. However, the interactions between plants and endophytic bacteria emerged as an interesting era of knowledge that can be used for novel agriculture practices. Endophytic bacteria which survive within plant tissues are among the most appropriate technologies improving plant growth and yield under drought conditions. These endophytic bacteria live within plant tissues and release various phytochemicals that assist plant to withstand in harsh environmental conditions, i.e., drought stress. Their plant growth–promoting characteristics include nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, mineral uptake, and the production of siderophore, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase, and various phytohormones. These plant growth promoting characteristics of endophytic bacteria improve root length and density, which lead to the enhance drought tolerance. In addition, plant–endophytic bacteria assist plant to withstand against drought stress by producing drought-tolerant substances, for instance, abscisic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, ACC deaminase, and various volatile compounds. Indirectly, endophytic bacteria also improve osmotic adjustment, relative water content, and antioxidant activity of inoculated plants. Altogether, these bacterial-mediated drought tolerance and plant growth–promoting processes continue even under severe drought conditions which lead to enhanced plant growth promotion and yield. The present review highlights a natural and environment-friendly strategy in the form of drought-tolerant and plant growth–promoting endophytic bacteria to improve drought tolerance in plants.

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Funding

We received funds from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (No: 21-2297/SRGP/R&D/HEC/2018) under Startup Research Grant Program. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Malakand, Chakdara Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 18800, Pakistan

    Abid Ullah, Mohammad Nisar, Ali Hazrat, Muhammad Ihsan, Muhammad Laiq & Sana Ullah

  2. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Abid Ullah, Aamir Hamid Khan, Adnan Akbar & Xiyan Yang

  3. Department of Zoology, University of Malakand, Chakdara Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 18800, Pakistan

    Hazrat Ali

  4. Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Kashif Hayat

  5. Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Faculty of Crop Production, Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

    Ayaz Ali Keerio

  6. Department of Agriculture, University of Swabi, Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

    Shah Fahad

  7. Key Laboratory of Plant Genetic and Breeding, College of Agriculture, Guanxi University, Nanning, 530005, Guanxi, China

    Aziz Khan

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  1. Abid Ullah
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  2. Mohammad Nisar
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  3. Hazrat Ali
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  4. Ali Hazrat
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  9. Sana Ullah
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Correspondence to Abid Ullah.

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Ullah, A., Nisar, M., Ali, H. et al. Drought tolerance improvement in plants: an endophytic bacterial approach. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 103, 7385–7397 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10045-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10045-4

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