Use of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria as biocontrol agents. Induced systemic resistance against biotic stress in plants

MARIAVICTORIA SALOMON; IVÁN FUNES PINTER; PATRICIA PICCOLI; RUBÉN BOTTINI

Microbial Applications 2017: Volume 2 Biomedicine, Agriculture and Industry

Springer International Publishing AG

Año: 2017;

PlantGrowth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) are free-living bacteria able to colonizeroots and soil around them that have a positive effect on plant growth,development and health. One of the mechanisms by which PGPR exert a beneficialeffect involves the capacity to control growth of deleterious organismsdiminishing or preventing their negative effects on plant health and growth. Pathogenbiocontrol implicates diverse features of bacteria; one of them is theantagonism that excludes pathogen due to the ability of some bacteria tocolonize faster and more effectively a niche, reducing nutrient availabilityfor the deleterious organism (including siderophore production). Also somebacteria produce antibiotics, organiccompounds that are lethal in low concentration for growth and metabolicactivities of other microorganisms. Finally, the ability of bacteria to elicita defense response in plant, called Induced Systemic Resistance (IRS), involvesthe induction of synthesis of defense metabolites, but without causing adisease itself, enhancing the plants defensive capacity. In this chapter isanalyzed and discussed PGPR as biocontrol agent and the possibility to use themas ecological alternative to the use of agrochemicals, since they have been provedin different plant species in order to diminish the damage of pathogen and toreduce losses in crops.