Increased protein content of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen‐fixing bacteria under water deficit conditions

Abstract

Inoculation with N-fixing bacteria and AM fungi has the potential to benefit agricultural production of chickpea under water deficit conditions and to contribute to increased grain protein content. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Growth and nutrition of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) under water deficit as influenced by microbial inoculation via seed coating

“…The enhancement of K under moderate water deficit might be one of the factors responsible for improving cowpea tolerance to the stress and positively influencing seed yield, when comparing to the reaming treatments under the same water regime. The ability of PGPR to increase plant biomass, yield and protein content both under greenhouse and field conditions was shown before in legumes (Oliveira et al., ,b; Sindhu, Dua, Verma, & Khandelwal, ). Many studies with various crops showed a positive relationship between PGPR inoculation and drought tolerance (Figueiredo, Burity, Martínez, & Chanway, ; Gusain et al., ; Kohler, Hernández, Caravaca, & Roldán, ; Naseem & Bano, ).…”

“…Legume crops are able to establish symbiotic interactions with microbes (e.g. PGPR and AM fungi), which help them cope with unfavourable environmental conditions such as drought (Oliveira et al., ,b; Zahran, ).…”

“…Inoculation with AM fungi and PGPR has been considered to be a promising strategy to increase plant drought tolerance (Bhardwaj et al., ; Dodd & Ruiz‐Lozano, ). Some studies presented the effects of beneficial microbes on plant under water stress, such as improved grain yield and protein content (Oliveira et al., ,b) increment on nutrient (Ngakou et al., ) and water uptake and increased transpiration and photosynthesis rates (Virakornphanich, Masuhara, & Adachi, ). Therefore, it is imperative to develop feasible strategies for application of these beneficial microbes in open agricultural fields using minor amounts of inoculum for precision agriculture.…”

Insights to plant–microbe interactions provide opportunities to improve resistance breeding against root diseases in grain legumes

“…Bio-inoculations are a relatively simple but effective means to increase crop productivity through the amendment of certain microorganisms. Seed coating of grain legumes has been especially successful for N-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi (O'Callaghan, 2016;Oliveira et al, 2017;Patil & Alagawadi, 2010). A yield increase of 52% was obtained through coinoculation of chickpea with an N-fixing (Mesorhizobium ciceri) and a P-solubilizing (Pseudomonas jessenii) bacteria (Valverde et al, 2006).…”

Enhancing legume growing through sustainable cropping for protein supply

“…Since the future competitiveness of the grain legumes value chain in Europe will depend on agronomic and scientific developments, for this In Focus issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture we gathered relevant papers covering novel research addressed by the multidisciplinary teams of the EUROLEGUME project, with the aim of bringing added value to the grain legume chain.…”