AUTHOR=Ullah Asad , Bano Asghari , Khan Naeem 

TITLE=Climate Change and Salinity Effects on Crops and Chemical Communication Between Plants and Plant Growth-Promoting Microorganisms Under Stress

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.618092

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2021.618092

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=During the last two decades the world has recognized an abrupt change in climate. Both natural and artificial factors are climate change drivers however, the effect of natural factors are lesser than the anthropogenic drivers. These factors have changed the pattern of precipitation resulting in rise in sea level, change in evapotranspiration, occurrence of flood overwintering of pathogens, increased resistance of pests and parasites and reduced productivity of plants. Although excess CO2 promotes growth of C3 plants, on the other hand high temperatures reduce the yield of important agricultural crops due to high evapotranspiration. These two factors have an impact on soil salinization and agriculture production, leading to the issue of water and food security. Farmers have adopted different strategies to cope with agriculture production in saline and saline sodic soil. Recently the inoculation of halotolerant plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in saline fields is an environmental friendly and sustainable approach to overcome salinity, promote crop growth, and yield in saline and saline sodic soil. These halotolerant bacteria synthesize certain metabolites which help crops in adopting saline condition and promote their growth without any negative effects. There is a complex interkingdom signalling between host and microbes for mutual interaction, which is also influenced by environmental factors. For mutual survival, nature induces a strong positive relationship between host and microbes in the rhizosphere. Commercialization of such PGPR in the form of biofertilizers, biostimulant, biopower etc. are needed currently to build climate resilience in agriculture. The production of phytohormones particularly auxins have been demonstrated by PGPR even the pathogenic bacteria and fungi which also modulate the endogenous level of auxins in plants subsequently enhancing plant resistance to various stresses. The present review focuses on plant-microbe communication and elaborated their role in plant tolerance under changing climatic conditions.