Title:Insights on Engineered Microbes in Sustainable Agriculture: Biotechnological Developments and Future Prospects
VOLUME: 21 ISSUE: 5
Author(s):Surya Sudheer*, Renu Geetha Bai, Zeba Usmani and Minaxi Sharma
Affiliation:Department of Botany, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Lai 40, Tartu, School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University, Narva mnt 29, Tallinn 10120, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn 12612, Department of Food Technology, ACA, Eternal University, Baru Sahib, 173001, Himachal Pradesh
Keywords:Plant-microbe interactions, genetic engineering, molecular tools, sustainable agriculture, microbiome, inoculants.
Abstract:
Background: Enhanced agricultural production is essential for increasing demand of the
growing world population. At the same time, to combat the adverse effects caused by conventional agriculture
practices to the environment along with the impact on human health and food security, a sustainable
and healthy agricultural production needs to be practiced using beneficial microorganisms for
enhanced yield. It is quite challenging because these microorganisms have rich biosynthetic repositories
to produce biomolecules of interest; however, the intensive research in allied sectors and emerging
genetic tools for improved microbial consortia are accepting new approaches that are helpful to
farmers and agriculturists to meet the ever-increasing demand of sustainable food production. An important
advancement is improved strain development via genetically engineered microbial systems
(GEMS) as well as genetically modified microorganisms (GMOs) possessing known and upgraded
functional characteristics to promote sustainable agriculture and food security. With the development
of novel technologies such as DNA automated synthesis, sequencing and influential computational
tools, molecular biology has entered the systems biology and synthetic biology era. More recently,
CRISPR/Cas has been engineered to be an important tool in genetic engineering for various applications
in the agri sector. The research in sustainable agriculture is progressing tremendously through
GMOs/GEMS for their potential use in biofertilizers and as biopesticides.
Conclusion: In this review, we discuss the beneficial effects of engineered microorganisms through
integrated sustainable agriculture production practices to improve the soil microbial health in order to
increase crop productivity.
