A Review on Practical Application and Potentials of Phytohormone-Producing Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria for Inducing Heavy Metal Tolerance in Crops

Farheen Nazli, Adnan Mustafa, Maqshoof Ahmad, Azhar Hussain, Moazzam Jamil, Xiukang Wang, Qaiser Shakeel, Muhammad Imtiaz and Mohamed A. El-Esawi
Additional contact information
Farheen Nazli: Department of Soil Science, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Adnan Mustafa: National Engineering Laboratory for Improving Quality of Arable Land, Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Maqshoof Ahmad: Department of Soil Science, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Azhar Hussain: Department of Soil Science, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Moazzam Jamil: Department of Soil Science, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Xiukang Wang: College of Life Sciences, Yan’an University, Yan’an 716000, China
Qaiser Shakeel: Department of Plant Pathology, University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Muhammad Imtiaz: Soil and Environmental Biotechnology Division, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad 44000, Pakistan
Mohamed A. El-Esawi: Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-24

Abstract: Water scarcity and high input costs have compelled farmers to use untreated wastewater and industrial effluents to increase profitability of their farms. Normally, these effluents improve crop productivity by serving as carbon source for microbes, providing nutrients to plants and microbes, and improving soil physicochemical and biological properties. They, however, may also contain significant concentrations of potential heavy metals, the main inorganic pollutants affecting plant systems, in addition to soil deterioration. The continuous use of untreated industrial wastes and agrochemicals may lead to accumulation of phytotoxic concentration of heavy metals in soils. Phytotoxic concentration of heavy metals in soils has been reported in Pakistan along the road sides and around metropolitan areas, which may cause its higher accumulation in edible plant parts. A number of bacterial that can induce heavy metal tolerance in plants due to their ability to produce phytohormones strains have been reported. Inoculation of crop plants with these microbes can help to improve their growth and productivity under normal, as well as stressed, conditions. This review reports the recent developments in heavy metal pollution as one of the major inorganic sources, the response of plants to these contaminants, and heavy metal stress mitigation strategies. We have also summarized the exogenous application of phytohormones and, more importantly, the use of phytohormone-producing, heavy metal-tolerant rhizobacteria as one of the recent tools to deal with heavy metal contamination and improvement in productivity of agricultural systems.

Keywords: environmental pollution; urbanization; industrialization; heavy metals; phytohormones; microbes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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