AUTHOR=Rizvi Asfa , Ahmed Bilal , Khan Mohammad Saghir , Umar Shahid , Lee Jintae 

TITLE=Sorghum-Phosphate Solubilizers Interactions: Crop Nutrition, Biotic Stress Alleviation, and Yield Optimization

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.746780

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2021.746780

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), is a highly productive, gluten-free cereal crop plant, which can be used as alternative energy resource, human food, and livestock feed or biofuel-ethanol production. Phosphate fertilization is a common practice to optimize sorghum yield but because of high cost, environmental hazards and soil fertility reduction, the use of chemical P fertilizer is discouraged. Due to this, the impetus to search for an inexpensive and eco-friendly microbiome as an alternative to chemical P biofertilizer has been increased. Microbial formulations especially phosphate solubilizing microbiome (PSM) either alone or in synergism with other rhizobacteria modify the soil nutrient pool and augment the growth, P nutrition and yield of sorghum. The use of PSM in sorghum disease management reduces the dependence on pesticides employed to control the phytopathogens damage. The information on the role of PSM in sorghum cultivation system is, however, scanty. In this manuscript, the diversity and the strategies adopted by PSM to expedite sorghum yield are reviewed including the nutritional importance of sorghum in human health and mechanism of P solubilization by PSM. Also, the impact of solo or composite inoculations of biological enhancer (PSM) with nitrogen fixers or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are explained. The approaches employed by PSM to control sorghum phytopathogens are highlighted. The simultaneous bio-enhancing and biocontrol activity of PS microbiome provides better options to replace chemical P fertilizers and pesticides application in sustainable sorghum production practices.