title: Exploiting plant-microbe partnerships to improve biomass production and remediation.
abstract: Although many plant-associated bacteria have beneficial effects on their host, their importance during plant growth and development is still underestimated. A better understanding of their plant growth-promoting mechanisms could be exploited for sustainable growth of food and feed crops, biomass for biofuel production and feedstocks for industrial processes. Such plant growth-promoting mechanisms might facilitate higher production of energy crops in a more sustainable manner, even on marginal land, and thus contribute to avoiding conflicts between food and energy production. Furthermore, because many bacteria show a natural capacity to cope with contaminants, they could be exploited to improve the efficiency of phytoremediation or to protect the food chain by reducing levels of agrochemicals in food crops.
authors.affiliation: Hasselt University, Department of Environmental Biology, CMK, Universitaire Campus building D, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nele
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Weyens
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van der Lelie
authors.forename: Safiyh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taghavi
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.forename: Jaco
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vangronsveld
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D018533:Biomass; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology*