A Critical Review on Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) as a Drought Stress Management Tool

Water scarcity is known as a major stumbling block towards crop development and its output all over the world. Certain free-living bacterial strains have been found near the plant root zones which have shown to improve resistance of plants towards water stress. Despite availability of basic nutrients, drought an abiotic factor substantially inhibits growth, development and yield of crops by causing an increase in ethylene levels. It is a good idea to incorporate the use of a management tool which is the utilization of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria to help several crops manage drought conditions. Drought stress in crops can be alleviated by reducing ethylene synthesis, exopolysaccharide, osmoregulation, Indole-3-acetic acid and aggregation with the ACC deaminase-containing plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Inoculating pathogens like root rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) affected plant with Pseudomonas fluorescens strain TDK1 with ACC deaminase function improves drought stress. Using plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria to mitigate the negative imbibes of drought in most crops is a good idea. Several studies have been carried out on plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, as its inoculation not only manages drought related conditions but increases root hair growth and lateral root, which assist in increased water and nutrient uptake. It limits ethylene supply, alternatively increases plant root growth by hydrolyzing 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC). This review will give us a perspective on the importance of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, as it is one of the efficient tools that helps manage drought stress on several crops.