Chapter 22
Beneficial Role of Plant Growth-Promoting
Rhizobacteria in Bioremediation of Heavy
Metal(loid)-Contaminated Agricultural
Fields
Krishnendu Pramanik , Sandipan Banerjee , Debosmita Mukherjee ,
Kunal Kumar Saha , Tushar Kanti Maiti , and
Narayan Chandra Mandal
Abstract The synergy of plants and microbes is one of the most interesting parts of
holobiont research that yet have to be unwrapped before we can understand its
implications in agriculture. Environmental stresses on plant ecology have further
added to our curiosity in this context. Microorganisms are key players in benefitting
plant health. This chapter mainly covers heavy metal and metalloid (HM)-induced
phytotoxicity in different crops. We will be describing the role of soil-dwelling plant
growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in the mitigation of HM-induced damages
in plants. We will also consider more generally the influential role of these microbes
in biotic stress tolerance and the agricultural adoption of PGPR-involved strategies
to combat HMs, which will help us provide adequate food for the world’s human
population and the animals on which we depend for food, labor and companionship.
Our starting point will be PGPR collected directly from the crop rhizosphere and
associated with the lessening of HM content in crops, but excluding those intracellular endophytic microbes and those involved in PGPR-assisted phytoremediation.
The principal rationale for these research efforts is to reduce the consumer’s health
risks that are directly associated with the mobilisation or immobilisation of HMs
inside plant cells. These microbes are possibly the best candidates for bioremediation
because of their resilience and ability to withstand high HM levels, their mediation of
the limiting effects that recalcitrant metals exert upon plant’s health, our successes of
collaboration with the plants and microbes for biocontrol activities and microbial
phytostimulation. This elaborative study covers the effect of 10 HMs (viz. Arsenic,
K. Pramanik (*) · S. Banerjee · D. Mukherjee · K. K. Saha · N. C. Mandal (*)
Mycology and Plant Pathology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Siksha Bhavana, VisvaBharati, Santiniketan, Birbhum, West Bengal, India
e-mail: kpbu.microbio@gmail.com; narayanchandra.mandal@visva-bharati.ac.in
T. K. Maiti
Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, The University of Burdwan, Purba
Bardhaman, West Bengal, India
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_22
441
Beneficial Role of Plant Growth-Promoting
Rhizobacteria in Bioremediation of Heavy
Metal(loid)-Contaminated Agricultural
Fields
Krishnendu Pramanik , Sandipan Banerjee , Debosmita Mukherjee ,
Kunal Kumar Saha , Tushar Kanti Maiti , and
Narayan Chandra Mandal
Abstract The synergy of plants and microbes is one of the most interesting parts of
holobiont research that yet have to be unwrapped before we can understand its
implications in agriculture. Environmental stresses on plant ecology have further
added to our curiosity in this context. Microorganisms are key players in benefitting
plant health. This chapter mainly covers heavy metal and metalloid (HM)-induced
phytotoxicity in different crops. We will be describing the role of soil-dwelling plant
growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in the mitigation of HM-induced damages
in plants. We will also consider more generally the influential role of these microbes
in biotic stress tolerance and the agricultural adoption of PGPR-involved strategies
to combat HMs, which will help us provide adequate food for the world’s human
population and the animals on which we depend for food, labor and companionship.
Our starting point will be PGPR collected directly from the crop rhizosphere and
associated with the lessening of HM content in crops, but excluding those intracellular endophytic microbes and those involved in PGPR-assisted phytoremediation.
The principal rationale for these research efforts is to reduce the consumer’s health
risks that are directly associated with the mobilisation or immobilisation of HMs
inside plant cells. These microbes are possibly the best candidates for bioremediation
because of their resilience and ability to withstand high HM levels, their mediation of
the limiting effects that recalcitrant metals exert upon plant’s health, our successes of
collaboration with the plants and microbes for biocontrol activities and microbial
phytostimulation. This elaborative study covers the effect of 10 HMs (viz. Arsenic,
K. Pramanik (*) · S. Banerjee · D. Mukherjee · K. K. Saha · N. C. Mandal (*)
Mycology and Plant Pathology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Siksha Bhavana, VisvaBharati, Santiniketan, Birbhum, West Bengal, India
e-mail: kpbu.microbio@gmail.com; narayanchandra.mandal@visva-bharati.ac.in
T. K. Maiti
Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, The University of Burdwan, Purba
Bardhaman, West Bengal, India
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_22
441