Microbial enhancement of crop abiotic stress tolerance: mechanisms and applications
5 affiliations
- 1College of Agriculture, Tarim University
- 2Key Laboratory of Genetic Improvement and Efficient Production for Specialty Crops in Arid Southern Xinjiang of Xinjiang Corps
- 3Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
- 4Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics & Crop Gene Editing, School of Life Sciences, Linyi University
- 5College of Biological Science and Technology, Yili Normal University
Abstract
Crops aimed at nourishing an exponentially increasing population are frequently vulnerable to a diversity of adverse ecological conditions. Due to climate change, extreme events including flooding, droughts, heat, and frost are expected to further upsurge in the future. To cope with such effects, a wide range of mitigation and adaptation approaches are needed. Even though plants have been engineered to endure stressful conditions, and some have also developed ways of regulating their metabolism, there is still a scarcity of food supply. To mitigate abiotic stresses, an alternate strategy is to investigate the possibility of utilizing rhizosphere microbes, as it is a cost-effective biological approach for abiotic stress management, which can be employed on a short-term basis. In this review, the various mechanisms, including promoting plant growth, up-regulating the expression of antioxidant and dehydration response genes, reducing ethylene levels, and stimulating the production of soluble phosphates and plant hormones by which microorganisms regulate plants’ reactions to different abiotic stresses, such as high temperature, drought, low temperature, metal toxicity damage, and salinity, are discussed. With this review, we aim to encourage the strategy of using microbial technology to feed the world’s population under the existing resource conditions and propose that the improvement of crops’ abiotic stress tolerance by microbial technology is the key to making crops more adaptable to future climatic conditions and proposing it as promising and feasible future technology.
Related
- Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance: 2nd Edition
- Molecular Mechanisms and Network Integration of Oxylipin Signaling in Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance
- Enhancement of plant photosynthesis by seaweed extracts under optimal and abiotic stress conditions: physiological and molecular mechanisms
- Nano-enabled microbial bioinputs for sustainable agriculture: advances, mechanisms, applications, and future challenges
- Microbial Biostimulants for Drought Resilience in Plants: Mechanisms, Plant–Microbiome Interactions, and Sustainable Agricultural Applications
BibTeX
@article{aslam2026microbial,
title = {{Microbial enhancement of crop abiotic stress tolerance: mechanisms and applications}},
author = {Uzma Aslam and Xueqi Liang and Yongliang Yan and Mengyang Li and Mengke Du and Tingyong Mao and Mohammad Nauman Khan and Lili Yang and Yunlong Zhai},
journal = {Frontiers in Plant Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpls.2026.1992134},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1992134/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Microbial enhancement of crop abiotic stress tolerance: mechanisms and applications
AU - Uzma Aslam
AU - Xueqi Liang
AU - Yongliang Yan
AU - Mengyang Li
AU - Mengke Du
AU - Tingyong Mao
AU - Mohammad Nauman Khan
AU - Lili Yang
AU - Yunlong Zhai
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
JO - Frontiers in Plant Science
DO - 10.3389/fpls.2026.1992134
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1992134/full
AB - Crops aimed at nourishing an exponentially increasing population are frequently vulnerable to a diversity of adverse ecological conditions. Due to climate change, extreme events including flooding, droughts, heat, and frost are expected to further upsurge in the future. To cope with such effects, a wide range of mitigation and adaptation approaches are needed. Even though plants have been engineered to endure stressful conditions, and some have also developed ways of regulating their metabolism, there is still a scarcity of food supply. To mitigate abiotic stresses, an alternate strategy is to investigate the possibility of utilizing rhizosphere microbes, as it is a cost-effective biological approach for abiotic stress management, which can be employed on a short-term basis. In this review, the various mechanisms, including promoting plant growth, up-regulating the expression of antioxidant and dehydration response genes, reducing ethylene levels, and stimulating the production of soluble phosphates and plant hormones by which microorganisms regulate plants’ reactions to different abiotic stresses, such as high temperature, drought, low temperature, metal toxicity damage, and salinity, are discussed. With this review, we aim to encourage the strategy of using microbial technology to feed the world’s population under the existing resource conditions and propose that the improvement of crops’ abiotic stress tolerance by microbial technology is the key to making crops more adaptable to future climatic conditions and proposing it as promising and feasible future technology.
SN - 1664-462X
ER -