Abstract Soil pollution generally causes huge losses in the world’s agricultural
output, and therefore, soil pollution control is essential in agriculture crop production
system. For soil pollution management, we usually reduce the use of chemical
fertilizers, manures, and pesticide, reuse the domestic waste product materials such
as glass containers, plastic bags, paper, and cloth, and recycle the materials such as
some kinds of plastics and glass cane, but their indiscriminate use causes environmental problems and human health hazards. Moreover, the continuous use of those
products without safe disposal leads to soil pollution. Thus, bioremediation of soil
pollution is an alternate eco-friendly method for soil pollution management, in
which plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria are used in alleviating the contaminated soil. Many rhizosphere microorganisms including Azotobacter spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Glomus spp., Acaulospora spp., Scutellospora spp.,
Streptomyces spp., Klebsiella spp., Lysobacter spp., Rhizobium leguminosarum,
Burkholderia spp., Diaphorobacter nitroreducens, Planomicrobium chinense,
Promicromonospora spp., Mesorhizobium spp., Psychrobacillus psychrodurans,
Pantoea spp., Arthrobacter spp., and Variovorax spp. have been found as plant
growth–promoting rhizobacteria. These PGPR have been found to bioremediate the
polluted soil by using various types of mechanisms such as through siderophore
production, phosphate solubilization, biological nitrogen fixation, production of
1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACC), quorum sensing, signal
interference and phytohormone production, exhibiting antifungal activity, production of volatile organic compounds, and induction of systemic resistance, promoting
beneficial plant-–microbe symbioses. Thus, there are immense possibilities for
identifying other growth-promoting rhizobacteria that could help in bioremediation
of polluted soil as well as promote sustainable agriculture.
Keywords Bioremediation · Soil pollution · Plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria ·
Siderophore production · Sustainable agriculture
8.1 Introduction
Soil is the most wondrous gift of nature to human society, it is a part of an ecosystem,
it is the substance existing on the earth’s surface, which grows and develops plant
life (Terzaghi and Peck 1996), it performs a wide range of functions (Jury and Roth
1990) and renders a number of environmental services that connect it with the
human society or in another word soil is essentially a natural body of mineral and
organic constituents produced by solid material recycling, during a myriad of
complex processes of solid crust modifications, which are closely related to the
hydrological cycle (Mirsal 2008). The soil is contaminated by several pollutants
which are also known as soil pollutants, and this phenomenon are called as soil
pollution, i.e., the occurrence of the chemical or other substances in the soil at a
204
M. K. Chitara et al.
output, and therefore, soil pollution control is essential in agriculture crop production
system. For soil pollution management, we usually reduce the use of chemical
fertilizers, manures, and pesticide, reuse the domestic waste product materials such
as glass containers, plastic bags, paper, and cloth, and recycle the materials such as
some kinds of plastics and glass cane, but their indiscriminate use causes environmental problems and human health hazards. Moreover, the continuous use of those
products without safe disposal leads to soil pollution. Thus, bioremediation of soil
pollution is an alternate eco-friendly method for soil pollution management, in
which plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria are used in alleviating the contaminated soil. Many rhizosphere microorganisms including Azotobacter spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Glomus spp., Acaulospora spp., Scutellospora spp.,
Streptomyces spp., Klebsiella spp., Lysobacter spp., Rhizobium leguminosarum,
Burkholderia spp., Diaphorobacter nitroreducens, Planomicrobium chinense,
Promicromonospora spp., Mesorhizobium spp., Psychrobacillus psychrodurans,
Pantoea spp., Arthrobacter spp., and Variovorax spp. have been found as plant
growth–promoting rhizobacteria. These PGPR have been found to bioremediate the
polluted soil by using various types of mechanisms such as through siderophore
production, phosphate solubilization, biological nitrogen fixation, production of
1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACC), quorum sensing, signal
interference and phytohormone production, exhibiting antifungal activity, production of volatile organic compounds, and induction of systemic resistance, promoting
beneficial plant-–microbe symbioses. Thus, there are immense possibilities for
identifying other growth-promoting rhizobacteria that could help in bioremediation
of polluted soil as well as promote sustainable agriculture.
Keywords Bioremediation · Soil pollution · Plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria ·
Siderophore production · Sustainable agriculture
8.1 Introduction
Soil is the most wondrous gift of nature to human society, it is a part of an ecosystem,
it is the substance existing on the earth’s surface, which grows and develops plant
life (Terzaghi and Peck 1996), it performs a wide range of functions (Jury and Roth
1990) and renders a number of environmental services that connect it with the
human society or in another word soil is essentially a natural body of mineral and
organic constituents produced by solid material recycling, during a myriad of
complex processes of solid crust modifications, which are closely related to the
hydrological cycle (Mirsal 2008). The soil is contaminated by several pollutants
which are also known as soil pollutants, and this phenomenon are called as soil
pollution, i.e., the occurrence of the chemical or other substances in the soil at a
204
M. K. Chitara et al.