Anteil EPB

The Gram-positive and spore-forming Bacilli are the most dominant group of bacteria that exist in various ecological niches on the earth. They represent one of the most important unmapped pools of biodiversity with immense potential of applications in agriculture, environment, and industry. As these bacteria are highly tolerant to stressful environment and enhance plant tolerance to harsh environment such as salinity, drought, and heavy metal toxicity, plant-associated Bacilli have high potential for promoting sustainable crop production. Many species of Bacilli are being commercially used as phytostimulator and biofertilizer. Some of them are applied as biopesticide for protecting crop plants from phytopathogens and insect pests. The Bacillus -based products are becoming popular in ecologically sound and climate resilient agricultural production system. In fact, Bacillus and allied species based formulations are already dominating the biopesticides market, although, to compete with other formulations and chemical alternatives, the biology of Bacillus had to be understood from perspective of such applications. Our understanding of the biology and molecular-basis of the beneficial effects of plant-associated Bacilli has greatly been progressed in recent years through genomics, metagenomics, post-genomics and metabolomics studies. The volume two of the series Bacilli and Agrobiotechnology comprehensively reviews and updates current knowledge of Bacilli as phytostimulant and biological control of plant pests. Better understanding the biology, ecology and mechanism of action of the beneficial strains of Bacilli will play a role in the development of products to support green biotechnology in agriculture and industries. This book provides a comprehensive resource for researchers and students involved with studying the roles of Bacilli in sustainable crop production technologies. Chapters included in the book not only elaborate on beneficial traits of Bacilli, but also highlight utilization of these microbes for producing industrially important antibiotics, enzymes, probiotics and other useful biochemicals. Feeding ever increasing world population from shrinking arable acreage led to a synthetic input (fertilizer, growth regulator, pesticide etc.) based crop production system, which has been creating both environmental and health hazards and may also make the whole production system unsustainable. Researchers, food producers and consumers alike, now realize that this world needs effective, environmentally smart agricultural technologies that are safe for people use less synthetic inputs and protect natural resources. To overcome the challenge of increasing food production with a significant reduction of agrochemicals use, a great deal of interest and research have been devoted to beneficial microorganisms/biostimulants in recent days with noteworthy positive results. Bacillus based biopesticide together with other bio-rational approaches may play a critical role in helping all the key drivers of sustainable, environmentally responsible food production with enhanced food quality. Although multiple strains of Bacillus spp. showed promise to contribute to the sustainable agriculture by making nutrients available to plants, providing additional defense to adverse abiotic and biotic stresses, research on Bacillus based product formulation, rate and crop selection, optimization of application timing are urgently needed. As crop plants are more vulnerable to abiotic and biotic stresses at the seedling stage, optimization of application timing should aid in alleviating those stresses for the successful completion of life cycle of a plant