Fungal and bacterial endophytes for rice improvement with special reference to drought stress

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) ranks number one regarding its production and area under cultivation. Abiotic factors result in 50% losses each year in rice crop. Major abiotic stressors like drought, salinity, nutrition and heat stress are controlled by several genes and can’t be controlled by improved agronomic practices and/or inserting one or two genes in the plants. Endophytes, primarily residing in the tissues of the host plant, can be useful in sustai’[[nable agriculture owing to various features they add to the plants. Though recent researches have documented pathogenic activity of endophytes but mutualistic, non-pathogenic, and/or useful aspects are more prominent. So, only the beneficial aspects of the endophytes will be discussed here. Though naturally occurring and mostly isolated endophytes from plant tissues are usually fungi, but endophytes are not limited to fungi only many bacterial species have also been documented as endophytes and in some cases they prove more beneficial than fungal endophytes. Till date there was no any recent review on the use of bacterial and fungal endophytes in increasing plant tolerance to the abiotic stressors. So, this review has given a recent update on role of endophytes in improving rice plant (s). This review will help researchers and scientists to screen the most promising endophytes in field and their application for the betterment of farmers.