title: Role of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria in Agricultural Sustainability-A Review.
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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. pravin92@siswa.um.edu.my.
authors.forename: Pravin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vejan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. rosazlin@um.edu.my.|Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture (CEBAR), Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. rosazlin@um.edu.my.
authors.forename: Rosazlin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abdullah
authors.affiliation: Forest Product Divisions, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, 52109 Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia. tumirah@frim.gov.my.
authors.forename: Tumirah
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Khadiran
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. salmah_r@um.edu.my.
authors.forename: Salmah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ismail
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. amru@um.edu.my.|Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture (CEBAR), Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. amru@um.edu.my.
authors.forename: Amru
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nasrulhaq Boyce
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D063245:Plant Development; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000382:microbiology; D058441:Rhizosphere; D012988:Soil Microbiology
keywords: biofertilizer; nano-encapsulation technology; plant growth; plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR); plant-microbes