Decoding the Role of Rhizosphere and Phyllosphere Microbiome in Biotic Stress: A Treasure Trove of Nature

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Biotic stress imposes several detrimental effects such as nutritional and physiological imbalance that subsequently leads to a huge yield loss of crop plants. Climate change and rapid urbanization also act as positive catalysts for the prevalence of biotic stressors. Acquiring the knowledge of dynamic rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbes has opened a new horizon of eco-friendly, economical biotic stress management of plants that can also overcome the drawbacks of traditional agricultural practices. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are potent biocontrol agents that can mitigate biotic stress by several mechanisms such as by modulating plant growth regulators, producing extracellular polysaccharides (EPS), up-regulating defence responsive genes, and stimulating Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR), which subsequently increase plant productivity and stress tolerance. Moreover, with respect to above-ground plant-microbe interaction i.e. Phyllosphere microbial communities (PMC) have immense potential to ameliorate biotic stress by modulating phytohormone and changing existing microbial communities. Even though, our knowledge about these hyper-diverse beneficial plant-microbe interactions is still illusive. In this chapter, we have critically analyzed the role of PGPR and PMC in biotic stress management, in light of promoting this agricultural practice on a large scale.