A comprehensive evaluation of the potential of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria for applications in agriculture in stressed environments

The world is facing a consistent increase in human population and a noticeable decrease in cultivable lands due to soil salinization, abrupt climatic changes, and less rainfall. These problems have increased the importance of finding ecologically sustainable solutions to ensure global food security. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria can be advantageous to enhancing plant productivity and safeguarding against environmental stresses. They may assist plants by atmospheric nitrogen fixation, nutrient recycling, phosphate solubilization, iron sequestration via siderophore formation, and production of phytohormones like indole-3-acetic acid and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase. They can also be used as biofertilizers and biocontrol agents as they produce antibiotics, exopolysaccharides, and hydrolytic enzymes. In this review, the connections between microbial populations, as microbial inoculants, and plant systems are highlighted, focusing on the enhancement of plant development, environmental resilience of agricultural systems, ecosystem services, and biological challenges under stressed conditions. This review also emphasizes the use of advanced molecular tools and techniques to effectively characterize potent soil microbial communities, their importance in increasing crop yield in stressed soils, and the prospects for future research.