Application of Synthetic Consortia for Improvement of Soil Fertility, Pollution Remediation, and Agricultural Productivity: A Review

Abstract

Climate change, inadequate possessions, and land degradation all pose obstacles to modern agriculture. In the current scenario, the agriculture industry is mainly dependent on the use of chemical-based pesticides and fertilizers that impact soil health and crop productivity. Moreover, water scarcity leads farmers in drastically affected regions to use heavy metal-enriched water sources mainly originating from industrial sources for field crops irrigation. Soil pollutants can be carried into the human body via dust and water, creating negative health effects varying from simple symptoms, e.g., nausea and diarrhea and reaching death in critical cases. Thus, to clean soil contaminants, and improve soil fertility and agricultural production, alternatives to chemical fertilizers must be developed. Therefore, using beneficial microbes found in plant-associated soil microorganisms offers an effective strategy to alleviate some of these challenges, improving soil fertility, and crop yield, and protecting plants from stress conditions. Through the use of synergistic interactions, the synthetic consortium strategy seeks to improve the stability of microbial communities. In this review, synthetic consortia and their potential use in agriculture were discussed. Further, engineering new effective synthetic consortia was suggested as an effective approach in the concept of environmental bioremediation of soil pollutants and contaminants.

Using Fungi in Artificial Microbial Consortia to Solve Bioremediation Problems

“…Moreover, in consortia, cells have higher adaptability and viability in relation to environmental factors (pH, temperature, concentration of pollutants, etc.) [ 119 ]. Despite this, most artificial microbial consortia face problems of non-sustainable functioning [ 120 ].…”

Rhizosphere soil properties of waxy sorghum under different row ratio configurations in waxy sorghum-soybean intercropping systems

“…These findings imply that waxy sorghum intercropped with soybean can increase enzymes activities and thus improve the quality of waxy sorghum rhizosphere soil. Soil microbes are an important part of soil ecosystem, and their community composition and quantity changes reflect soil quality and health to a certain extent, and are also the key factors to overcome continuous cropping obstacles [50,51]. Previous researches showed that rhizosphere soil microbes of crops were significantly affected by intercropping [33,43,52].…”

Short impact on soil microbiome of a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens QST713 based product that correlates with higher potato yield across USA

“…For instance, PGP microbes promote biological nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization, production of phytohormones, and biocontrol processes ( Vacheron et al., 2013 ; Bashan et al., 2014 ; Shahrajabian et al., 2023 ). More in particular, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) suggest a promising solution for more productive and sustainable agriculture practices ( Chaudhary et al., 2023 ). The use of biological products in agriculture has increased substantially in the last decade.…”