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Review
. 2022 Jul 29:13:962427.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.962427. eCollection 2022.

Efforts towards overcoming drought stress in crops: Revisiting the mechanisms employed by plant growth-promoting bacteria

Ayomide Emmanuel Fadiji  1 , Gustavo Santoyo  2 , Ajar Nath Yadav  3 , Olubukola Oluranti Babalola  1
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Review

Efforts towards overcoming drought stress in crops: Revisiting the mechanisms employed by plant growth-promoting bacteria

Ayomide Emmanuel Fadiji et al. Front Microbiol. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Globally, agriculture is under a lot of pressure due to rising population and corresponding increases in food demand. However, several variables, including improper mechanization, limited arable land, and the presence of several biotic and abiotic pressures, continually impact agricultural productivity. Drought is a notable destructive abiotic stress and may be the most serious challenge confronting sustainable agriculture, resulting in a significant crop output deficiency. Numerous morphological and physiological changes occur in plants as a result of drought stress. Hence, there is a need to create mitigation techniques since these changes might permanently harm the plant. Current methods used to reduce the effects of drought stress include the use of film farming, super-absorbent hydrogels, nanoparticles, biochar, and drought-resistant plant cultivars. However, most of these activities are money and labor-intensive, which offer limited plant improvement. The use of plant-growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) has proven to be a preferred method that offers several indirect and direct advantages in drought mitigation. PGPB are critical biological elements which have favorable impacts on plants' biochemical and physiological features, leading to improved sugar production, relative water content, leaf number, ascorbic acid levels, and photosynthetic pigment quantities. This present review revisited the impacts of PGPB in ameliorating the detrimental effects of drought stress on plants, explored the mechanism of action employed, as well as the major challenges encountered in their application for plant growth and development.

Keywords: drought; food production; phytohormones; plant growth promotion; sustainability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
A diagrammatic representation of the responses of plants to drought stress. Adapted from Mamédio et al. (2020). MDHA, Monodehydroascorbate; MDHAR, Monodehydroascorbate reductase; SOD, Superoxide dismutase; APX, Ascorbate peroxidase; POD, Peroxidases; GR, Glutathione reductase; LEA, Late embryo abundant; DSP, Dual-specificity phosphatase.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
A diagrammatic representation of different potential mechanisms employed by PGPB in the amelioration of drought stress in crops.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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