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Endophytes are symptomless fungal and bacterial microorganisms found in almost all living plants. They are vital components of plant microbiomes. Endophytes affect plant growth and plant responses to pathogens, herbivores, and environmental change by producing a range of natural products having antifungal, antibacterial, and insecticidal properties. Endophytes have shown particular promise in agriculture particularly as beneficial crop inoculants and are known to enhance abiotic and biotic plant stress tolerance by increasing tolerance to drought and water stress, as well as tolerance to high temperature and high salinity. A better understanding of their plant growth-promoting mechanisms could simplify higher production of energy crops in a more sustainable manner even on marginal land and feed stocks for industrial processes, thus contribute to avoiding conflicts between food and energy production Many endophytes can be exploited to improve the efficiency of phytoremediation as they are found to be resistant to heavy metals and capable of detoxifying organic contaminants.

This study was conducted to determine the impact on the nutrient status of soil and vegetable crops irrigated with the treated sewage water. Three samples of water and five samples of soil and five commonly grown vegetables viz. radish, carrot, spinach, cauliflower, and potato were collected from Ganjia, Arail and Dandi located in Naini, Allahabad (India). The water samples were analysed for pH, EC, and heavy metals (Pb2+, Cr3+, Cd2+ and Ni2+) concentration. Water samples from all the sites were alkaline with EC below the safe limits. The soil and plant samples from all the three sites showed that Gangia recorded the highest value of EC (dS m-1), organic carbon (OC) (%), available NPK (kg ha-1), and micronutrients concentration (Mn2+, Zn2+ and Fe2+) (mg kg-1) whereas, the lowest concentration was recorded at Dandi followed by Arail. The soil samples collected from all three sites were alkaline. The nutrient status (N, P and K) showed the highest value in potato in the three sites, whereas manganese and zinc showed the highest value in spinach and iron in carrot.  The study concludes that treated sewage water used for irrigation has a positive impact on nutrient status in soils and as well as in vegetable crops.