Harnessing Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria for Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance

As climate change drives more frequent droughts, salinity stress, waterlogging, and extreme weather events, farmers are facing growing challenges in maintaining crop productivity and food security. Traditional agricultural methods, which often rely on chemical inputs, are increasingly insufficient to combat these evolving stressors. Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) offer a promising, natural solution to strengthen plant defenses and support growth under adverse conditions, including both water deficit and excess.

PGPB supports plants in several important ways. They enhance nutrient uptake by mobilizing essential elements like phosphorus and potassium from the soil. These beneficial microbes also produce phytohormones that regulate growth and improve stress responses. By activating the plant's antioxidant systems, PGPB helps mitigate damage caused by stress-induced free radicals. Additionally, they assist plants in retaining water and developing stronger root systems by producing compounds such as exopolysaccharides, which improve soil structure and water retention. Under waterlogging stress, PGPB can also modulate ethylene levels and improve oxygen availability in the rhizosphere, helping plants adapt to hypoxic conditions.

To better understand the complex interactions between PGPB and plant stress responses, the integration of omics technologies—including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics—is essential. These approaches enable a systems-level view of how PGPB influences plant physiology and stress adaptation.

This Research Topic seeks to explore the diverse roles of PGPB in helping plants withstand environmental stress, with the aim of advancing sustainable agricultural practices. We invite contributions on themes such as:

• Mechanisms by which PGPB enhance nutrient acquisition and promote growth under stress

• Influence of PGPB-derived phytohormones on plant stress tolerance and development

• Activation of plant antioxidant systems by PGPB to mitigate oxidative damage

• Role of PGPB-produced compounds in improving water retention, root architecture, and soil structure

• Regulation of plant water use and adaptation to waterlogging and drought conditions

• The mechanisms of action of PGPB in enhancing plant salt tolerance

• Application of omics technologies to unravel PGPB-plant interactions and stress response pathways with focus on responsible genes, small RNAs, proteins

• PGPB-Mediated Mechanisms for Enhanced Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants: Gene Identification and Functional Analysis

• Hormonal profiling to characterize the impact of PGPB on plant hormone networks

We welcome submissions including original research, reviews, and case studies that deepen our understanding of how PGPB can be utilized in agriculture. Collaboration across fields such as microbiology, plant science, soil science, biotechnology, and systems biology will be essential in transforming these insights into practical farming solutions, ultimately enhancing crop resilience and sustainability.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPB), Beneficial Microbes, Rhizosphere, Stress Response Pathways

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.