Seed quality represents the cornerstone of agricultural productivity and food security, particularly in the face of climate change challenges. High-quality seeds possess genetic potential, physiological vigour, and phytosanitary integrity necessary for establishing robust plant populations capable of withstanding environmental stressors while delivering optimal yields. Integration of beneficial microorganisms offers a sustainable approach to enhance seed performance across multiple dimensions. This review explores how microbial intervention approaches can holistically enhance seed quality through complementary mechanisms across the crop production continuum. We have systematically documented beneficial microbial interactions including those with Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Trichoderma, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and associated modes of action for seed quality improvement. Application methods including seed coating, biopriming, and pelleting are critically assessed for their efficacy across agro-ecological contexts. Evidences suggest that microbial interventions operate through multiple complementary mechanisms by optimizing nutrient acquisition, enhancing stress tolerance, suppressing pathogens, and inducing systemic resistance. The comprehensive review describes the integration of microbial interventions with other sustainable agricultural practices that provide promising pathways towards resilient and productive farming systems. Studies indicate that potential cost-effective microbe-mediated approaches when clubbed with sensors, showed substantial economic viability and environmental sustainability. Emerging technologies including artificial intelligence-powered decision support systems and Internet of Things monitoring offer significant potential to optimize microbial seed treatments within precision agriculture frameworks are presented. Such integrated holistic methods can be clubbed with the transformative agricultural practices to offer food security and soil and crop health challenges in the regime of climatic variability.

The molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to beneficial and pathogenic microbial interactions has been uncovered in tomato at the proteomic level. Our study employed LC-MS-based proteomics to investigate differential protein regulation in tomato plants during interactions with beneficial bacteria (Bacillus subtilis BV7) versus pathogenic fungus (Alternaria solani). Comparative analysis revealed distinct protein signatures characterizing each interaction: 232 unique proteins in BV7-treated plants versus 96 in pathogen-infected plants, with 54 proteins shared between treatments. BV7 inoculation enhanced proteins involved in photosynthesis and primary metabolism, with PSI-K emerging as the top biomarker (score 2.53), while pathogen infection triggered focused defense responses with Cytochrome b559 (score 2.38) as the key biomarker. Metabolic pathway analysis demonstrated that BV7 uniquely enhanced vitamin metabolism (thiamine, riboflavin, folate) and energy production pathways, while pathogen infection activated defense-related phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. Analysis of defense enzymes showed pathogen infection induced highest activities of PAL (39.4 U h-1 g-1 fw), SOD (29.9 U mg-1 protein), POD (3.18 microg-1 fw min-1), APx (15.58 U mg-1 protein), and GPx (71.51 U mg-1 protein), while BV7 maintained moderate enzyme levels, suggesting balanced growth-defense responses. The shared proteins between treatments indicate a common molecular framework potentially contributing to induced systemic resistance. These findings provide novel insights into plant-microbe interactions at the molecular level, identifying specific protein biomarkers and metabolic pathways that could be targeted for enhancing crop productivity and disease resistance. The results have significant implications for developing biological control strategies and improving sustainable agricultural practices. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

With increasing global population and limited expansion of cultivated land, it is necessary to identify innovative solutions for enhancement of agricultural productivity and meet growing food demand. Despite significant advancements in crop protection methods, substantial annual crop losses persist particularly due to pests. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative tool to reform crop protection strategies. With the support of machine learning and deep learning algorithms, AI enables precise pest detection, risk assessment, monitoring, and forecasting thereby minimizing crop losses and maximizing yields. Further, AI integrates expert system and decision support system with crop management aspects for precise and timely decisions for farmers to enhance the crop productivity. In this review article, attempts are taken to explore the applications, implications, and future prospects of AI in field of pest management, emphasizing its pivotal role in agriculture and thus ensuring food security among evolving challenges.

The plant–soil microbiome, comprising diverse microbial communities, holds immense potential for transforming agricultural practices and addressing climate challenges. Understanding and harnessing these microbial interactions can enhance soil and plant health, improve resource-use efficiency, and boost crop productivity. In this article, I have discussed the critical role of microbiome bioprospecting in advancing sustainable agriculture and the circular bioeconomy. The multifaceted benefits of microbiome research, including its implications for human health, ecosystem functioning, and environmental remediation, were presented. I have highlighted various strategies for microbiome manipulation and their potential applications in sustainable agrobiome management and examined the connections between microbiome bioprospecting and circular bioeconomy, exploring areas such as soil ecosystem enrichment, biomass valorization, bioremediation, biorefinery processes, and the development of microbial inoculants and biopesticides. The direct benefits of microbiome-enriched soils for farming communities are outlined, emphasizing increased productivity, reduced input costs, and new market opportunities. Further, I have concluded by underscoring the transformative potential of microbiome research in driving sustainable agricultural practices and fostering a circular bioeconomy. It calls for interdisciplinary collaboration and continued research to fully leverage microbial communities for innovative applications in agriculture and beyond, paving the way for a more sustainable and resource-efficient future in food production and environmental stewardship.

High-temperature tolerant varieties/hybrids of tomato overcome stress-related changes due to their intrinsic cellular metabolic capabilities. We have used untargeted metabolite profiling and comparative biochemical and biological analyses of high temperature tolerant (HTT) tomato hybrid VRNTH18283 and sensitive (HTS) VRNTH19072 to decipher altered metabolic pathways and biomarker metabolites which were linked with enhanced antioxidant activity in HTT fruits. Parameters like fruit weight, yield per plant and key biochemical determinants viz. total soluble sugar (TSS), titratable acidity, ascorbic acid and lycopene content were significantly high in HTT hybrid compared to HTS. Metabolomics revealed upregulated metabolite diversity in HTT fruit extract (11453 m/z features) as compared to 8834 m/z features in HTS. Statistical analysis revealed 423 differentially up-regulated and 410 down-regulated metabolite features. Multivariate data analyses showed sample discrimination based on distinct phytochemical diversification. Functionally annotated metabolite features showed enrichment in metabolic pathways including linoleic and linolenic acid metabolism, monoterpenoids biosynthesis and degradation, cutin, suberin and wax biosynthesis, and sphingolipids metabolism. Metabolite features were categorized in benzamides, amino acids, sugars, nucleotides, sterols, glycosides, phenylacetaldehydes, indoles, tryptamines and organic acids as major compound classes. Among 22 potentially discriminatory metabolites obtained from OPLS-DA model, all including prominently abundant solasodine, thiamine diphosphate, L-tryptophan, folic acid, lycopene, dihydrozeatin, myricetin, tomatidine, chlorogenic acid and α-tocotrienol were classified as metabolite biomarkers and were correlated with enhanced antioxidant activity. The study revealed that the altered physicochemical profile, increased metabolite compositional diversity and discriminatory metabolite biomarkers are liable for improved performance of the hybrid HTT VRNTH18283 against the negative impact of high temperature in comparison to HTS VRNTH19072.

The interaction between beneficial microbes and pathogens in crop plants can lead to complex metabolic reprogramming. Our study employed LC–MS/MS-based untargeted metabolomics approach to elucidate the metabolic changes in tomato plants induced due to the inoculation of plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium Bacillus subtilis (BV4) and the pathogen Alternaria solani. Multivariate analyses (MVA) revealed distinct metabolic signatures associated with BV4 inoculation, pathogen infection, and their combined treatment. We observed that plant’s inoculation with beneficial microbe BV4 induced up-regulation of metabolites involved in constitutive metabolism, like glycolysis, TCA cycle, amino acid metabolism, and lipid metabolism, potentially supporting plant growth. Pathogen infection majorly triggered up-regulation of specialized metabolites, such as phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, terpenoids, and oxylipins, suggesting enhanced defense responses. The combined treatment however, exhibited a synergistic effect, with up-regulation of metabolites involved in both constitutive and specialized metabolism, suggesting a primed state for defense responses. Galactose metabolism emerged as the most enriched pathway across all treatments indicating its importance in plant defense through cell wall reinforcement, signaling and antimicrobial specialized metabolite production. ROC-based biomarker analysis putatively identified metabolites, including quercetin, salvigenin, delfinidin-3-O-glucoside, and asparagine, as potential biomarkers for distinguishing various treatment conditions. This study provides insights into the metabolic reprogramming in tomato plants in response to beneficial microbe-pathogen interactions and highlights the potential of untargeted metabolomics in elucidating complex plant-microbe interactions.

Owing to their ability to colonize plant tissues and metabolize a wide range of organic and inorganic toxic pollutants, endophytic fungi are a promising tool for environmental bioremediation. They reside within the living tissues of plants and have emerged as a promising group of organisms for mycoremediation, which involves using fungi to degrade and/or detoxify environmental pollutants, including organic and inorganic compounds and heavy metals. In the current years, the identification of endophytic fungi with mycoremediation potential has emerged as an area of focus. Researchers are exploring various plant species to isolate and identify endophytic fungi with the potential to degrade environmental pollutants. The use of molecular techniques and high-throughput screening methods has accelerated the identification of such fungi. Understanding the mechanisms by which endophytic fungi detoxify or degrade environmental pollutants is crucial for developing effective mycoremediation strategies. Overall, the field of endophytic fungi and their potential as mycoremediators is rapidly evolving, and there is significant potential for these organisms to play a critical role in developing sustainable environmental remediation strategies. In this chapter, attempts are being taken to explore the genetic and biochemical pathways involved in phytoremediation processes besides the potentials of endophytic fungi.

Proteomics of wild and cultivated tomato species challenged with Alternaria solani revealed altered protein profile with 1827 proteins in challenged susceptible plants (KTr), 1867 in non-challenged plants (KNTr), 1721 in challenged wild (CTr) and 1715 in non-challenged plants (CNTr). PLS-DA and heatmap analysis highlighted differences in protein composition and abundance as differential response species to pathogen. Compared to 321 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in wild tomato, cultivated plants showed 183 DEPs. Key upregulated proteins in wild tomato included defense-related t-SNARE, glucan endo-1,3-beta-D-glucosidase, pathogenesis-related protein P2, stress responsive DEK domain containing protein, heat shock 70 kDa protein 17, SHSP chaperone, signaling linked DAG, SCP domain-containing protein, Cutin-deficient protein, immunity-related translation initiation factor and RRM domain-containing protein. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis clustered defense related up-regulated chaperonins and other proteins into three distinct clusters in wild tomato. Prominent subcellular locations of up-regulated proteins were extracellular and intracellular regions, cytoplasm and membrane bound organelles. Compared to cultivated species, majority of plant defense, stress response and growth-related protein biomarkers were found up-regulated in wild tomato, suggesting its tolerance against pathogen due to stronger response. We conclude that significant up-regulation of defense, signaling and plant growth-related proteins enabled wild species to mount stronger response against the pathogen A. solani. Higher compositional protein diversity in the wild plants likely provided metabolic plasticity to modulate intrinsic defense mechanisms more effectively. This study enhances our understanding of the proteome-related molecular mechanisms underlying differential responses of wild and cultivated tomato species to this devastating pathogen.

The intricate interplay between microbiome and plant immunity represents a frontier in plant biology with significant implications for agriculture and ecosystem management. This review explores intricate relationship between plant immunity and the microbiome, highlighting its significance in addressing current agricultural and environmental challenges. The plant immune system, comprising pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI), plays crucial role in shaping microbial communities in the rhizosphere. Phytohormones such as salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and ethylene are the key modulators of plant defenses and contribute to rhizosphere microbiome composition. The concept of defense priming and plant immune memory emerges as a promising avenue for enhancing crop resilience against phytopathogens and environmental stresses. Root exudates and plant defense signatures actively influence rhizosphere microbiome structure, establishing a bidirectional relationship between plants and their microbial partners. This interaction is particularly relevant in the context of climate change, where plants face increasing biotic and abiotic stresses. Understanding and leveraging these complex interactions holds promise for developing more sustainable agricultural practices, reducing reliance on chemical inputs, and ensuring food security in the face of global challenges. We have stressed upon the importance of viewing the plant-soil-microbiome system as an integrated unit or holobiont. As agriculture grapples with the challenges of feeding a growing population under changing environmental conditions, harnessing the power of plant-microbiome interactions presents a promising strategy for improving food security and promoting ecosystem health.

Cardamom seed (Elettaria cardamomum (L.)) is a well-appreciated spice in food and pharmaceutical industries owing to its unique rich flavor dominated by oxygenated monoterpenoids, α-terpinyl acetate and 1,8-cineole, to which most of the quality of cardamom essential oil (CEO) is attributed. CEO output is greatly influenced by different agronomic factors, processing, and EO extraction methods. In that context, the goal of this study is to provide an overarching review regarding emerged technologies along with their optimization parameters to achieve optimal oil yield with the best flavor quality. Furthermore, the recent approaches employed in CEO stabilization were highlighted alongside their pharmaceutical and food applications. Moreover, the different aspects of superlative CEO production including agricultural aspects, climatic requirements, and processing methods were also explained.

Salinity is the major cause of reducing crop yield in wheat, an important staple food crop for food security. Since the rhizosphere microbiome plays an important role in plant growth and development, the present study was conducted to characterize functional metabolic changes in the rhizosphere microbiota of wheat grown under saline and non-saline soils using comparative metaproteomics. In total 1538 and 891 proteins were obtained from wheat rhizosphere from saline and non-saline soils, respectively. The proteins DNA-directed RNA polymerase subunit beta’ (48.43%) followed by Leucine-tRNA ligase (4.45%) and translocase subunit SecA (2.69%) were relatively most abundantly present in salt stressed wheat rhizosphere metaproteome. Induced accumulation of proteins related to proline and spermidine biosynthesis was found in saline wheat rhizosphere. Inositol transporter involved in the osmotic balance and HSP90A, a key player to response regulator in stress were present in saline rhizosphere but were absent in non-saline conditions. Among 1410 proteins unique for saline soil, those linked predominantly with the pathways were sphingolipid, phosphinate and phenazine metabolism. The data is available in ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD015387. The present study extends knowledge about the rhizosphere community functions utilizing a metaproteomic approach in wheat growing under saline conditions and can help in characterizing key proteins that may lead to physiological adaptations of the plants under saline environment.

Abiotic stresses including drought and salinity have become frontier areas in agricultural research, particularly due to their damaging potential to threaten global food security in near future. Constantly increasing soil salinity has severely damaged the global production of staple food crops. The ever-increasing world population is critically strained already due to the shrinkage of existing agricultural production system. Looking at the constraints, rigorous initiatives have been taken to yield several strategies to utilize conventional and modern approaches for increasing stress tolerance and/or mitigating the stress-induced ill-effects on crop to potentially improve the productivity. Recent literature signifies prominent attempts towards devising new strategies aiming at salinity and drought smart crop cultivation. The use of halophytes and halophyte-associated microbes is among the highly promising approach from both the perspectives of salinity stress mitigation, and saline soil reclamation in the long term. The cutting-edge omics tools have provided deeper insights into the understanding of the interactions of halophytes, associated microbiomes and the soil rhizosphere habitat. We have described ample of mechanism-based evidences to establish the role of halophytic plants and associated microbial communities in establishing a strong base for their application in bio-saline agriculture.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is among the most important commercial horticultural crops worldwide. The crop quality and production is largely hampered due to the fungal pathogen Alternaria solani causing necrotrophic foliage early blight disease. Crop plants usually respond to the biotic challenges with altered metabolic composition and physiological perturbations. We have deciphered altered metabolite composition, modulated metabolic pathways and identified metabolite biomarkers in A. solani-challenged susceptible tomato variety Kashi Aman using Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC–MS) based metabolomics. Alteration in the metabolite feature composition of pathogen-challenged (m/z 9405) and non-challenged (m/z 9667) plant leaves including 8487 infection-exclusive and 8742 non-infection exclusive features was observed. Functional annotation revealed putatively annotated metabolites and pathway mapping indicated their enrichment in metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, ubiquinone and terpenoid-quinones, brassinosteroids, steroids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, carotenoids, oxy/sphingolipids and metabolism of biotin and porphyrin. PCA, multivariate PLS-DA and OPLS-DA analysis showed sample discrimination. Significantly up regulated 481 and down regulated 548 metabolite features were identified based on the fold change (threshold ≥ 2.0). OPLS-DA model based on variable importance in projection (VIP scores) and FC threshold (> 2.0) revealed 41 up regulated discriminant metabolite features annotated as sphingosine, fecosterol, melatonin, serotonin, glucose 6-phosphate, zeatin, dihydrozeatin and zeatin-β-d-glucoside. Similarly, 23 down regulated discriminant metabolites included histidinol, 4-aminobutyraldehyde, propanoate, tyramine and linalool. Melatonin and serotonin in the leaves were the two indoleamines being reported for the first time in tomato in response to the early blight pathogen. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-based biomarker analysis identified apigenin-7-glucoside, uridine, adenosyl-homocysteine, cGMP, tyrosine, pantothenic acid, riboflavin (as up regulated) and adenosine, homocyctine and azmaline (as down regulated) biomarkers. These results could aid in the development of metabolite-quantitative trait loci (mQTL). Furthermore, stress-induced biosynthetic pathways may be the potential targets for modifications through breeding programs or genetic engineering for improving crop performance in the fields.

Untargeted metabolomics of moderately resistant wild tomato species Solanum cheesmaniae revealed an altered metabolite profile in plant leaves in response to Alternaria solani pathogen. Leaf metabolites were significantly differentiated in non-stressed versus stressed plants. The samples were discriminated not only by the presence/absence of specific metabolites as distinguished markers of infection, but also on the basis of their relative abundance as important concluding factors. Annotation of metabolite features using the Arabidopsis thaliana (KEGG) database revealed 3371 compounds with KEGG identifiers belonging to biosynthetic pathways including secondary metabolites, cofactors, steroids, brassinosteroids, terpernoids, and fatty acids. Annotation using the Solanum lycopersicum database in PLANTCYC PMN revealed significantly upregulated (541) and downregulated (485) features distributed in metabolite classes that appeared to play a crucial role in defense, infection prevention, signaling, plant growth, and plant homeostasis to survive under stress conditions. The orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), comprising a significant fold change (≥2.0) with VIP score (≥1.0), showed 34 upregulated biomarker metabolites including 5-phosphoribosylamine, kaur-16-en-18-oic acid, pantothenate, and O-acetyl-L-homoserine, along with 41 downregulated biomarkers. Downregulated metabolite biomarkers were mapped with pathways specifically known for plant defense, suggesting their prominent role in pathogen resistance. These results hold promise for identifying key biomarker metabolites that contribute to disease resistive metabolic traits/biosynthetic routes. This approach can assist in mQTL development for the stress breeding program in tomato against pathogen interactions.

Microbes enhance crop resilience to abiotic stresses, aiding agricultural sustainability amid rising global land salinity. While microbes have proven effective via seed priming, soil amendments, and foliar sprays in diverse crops, their mechanisms remain less explored. This study explores the utilization of ACC deaminase-producing Nocardioides sp. to enhance wheat growth in saline environments and the molecular mechanisms underlying Nocardioides sp.-mediated salinity tolerance in wheat. The Nocardioides sp. inoculated seeds were grown under four salinity regimes viz., 0 dS m-1, 5 dS m-1, 10 dS m-1, and 15 dS m-1, and vegetative growth parameters including shoot-root length, germination percentage, seedling vigor index, total biomass, and shoot-root ratio were recorded. The Nocardioides inoculated wheat plants performed well under saline conditions compared to uninoculated plants and exhibited lower shoot:root (S:R) ratio (1.52 ± 0.14 for treated plants against 1.84 ± 0.08 for untreated plants) at salinity level of 15 dS m-1 and also showed improved biomass at 5 dS m-1 and 10 dS m-1. Furthermore, the inoculated plants also exhibited higher protein content viz., 22.13 mg g-1, 22.10 mg g-1, 22.63 mg g-1, and 23.62 mg g-1 fresh weight, respectively, at 0 dS m-1, 5 dS m-1, 10 dS m-1, and 15 dS m-1. The mechanisms were studied in terms of catalase, peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and ascorbate peroxidase activity, free radical scavenging potential, in-situ localization of H2O2 and superoxide ions, and DNA damage. The inoculated seedlings maintained higher enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant potential, which corroborated with reduced H2O2 and superoxide localization within the tissue. The gene expression profiles of 18 stress-related genes involving abscisic acid signaling, salt overly sensitive (SOS response), ion transporters, stress-related transcription factors, and antioxidant enzymes were also analyzed. Higher levels of stress-responsive gene transcripts, for instance, TaABARE (~+7- and +10-fold at 10 dS m-1 and 15 dS m-1); TaHAk1 and hkt1 (~+4- and +8-fold at 15 dS m-1); antioxidant enzymes CAT, MnSOD, POD, APX, GPX, and GR (~+4, +3, +5, +4, +9, and +8 folds and), indicated actively elevated combat mechanisms in inoculated seedlings. Our findings emphasize Nocardioides sp.-mediated wheat salinity tolerance via ABA-dependent cascade and salt-responsive ion transport system. This urges additional study of methylotrophic microbes to enhance crop abiotic stress resilience.

Vegetable crops possess a prominent nutri-metabolite pool that not only contributes to the crop performance in the fields, but also offers nutritional security for humans. In the pursuit of identifying, quantifying and functionally characterizing the cellular metabolome pool, biomolecule separation technologies, data acquisition platforms, chemical libraries, bioinformatics tools, databases and visualization techniques have come to play significant role. High-throughput metabolomics unravels structurally diverse nutrition-rich metabolites and their entangled interactions in vegetable plants. It has helped to link identified phytometabolites with unique phenotypic traits, nutri-functional characters, defense mechanisms and crop productivity. In this study, we explore mining diverse metabolites, localizing cellular metabolic pathways, classifying functional biomolecules and establishing linkages between metabolic fluxes and genomic regulations, using comprehensive metabolomics deciphers of the plant's performance in the environment. We discuss exemplary reports covering the implications of metabolomics, addressing metabolic changes in vegetable plants during crop domestication, stage-dependent growth, fruit development, nutri-metabolic capabilities, climatic impacts, plant-microbe-pest interactions and anthropogenic activities. Efforts leading to identify biomarker metabolites, candidate proteins and the genes responsible for plant health, defense mechanisms and nutri-rich crop produce are documented. With the insights on metabolite-QTL (mQTL) driven genetic architecture, molecular breeding in vegetable crops can be revolutionized for developing better nutritional capabilities, improved tolerance against diseases/pests and enhanced climate resilience in plants.

The human digestive tract is the cottage to trillions of live microorganisms, which regulate health and illness. A healthy Gut Microbiota (GM) is necessary for preventing microbial growth, body growth, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and enhancing immunity. The equilibrium in GM's composition and the presence/absence of critical species enable specific responses to be essential for the host's better health condition. Research evidences revealed that the dietary plants and their bioactive phytochemicals (BPs) play an extensive and critical role in shaping the GM to get beneficial health effects. BPs are also known to improve gastrointestinal health and reduce the risk of several diseases by modulating GM-mediated cellular and molecular processes. Regular intake of BPs-rich vegetables, fruits, and herbal preparations promotes probiotic bacteria, including Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus species, while inhibiting unwanted gut residents' development Escherichia coli, and Salmonella typhimurium etc. Upon consumption, BPs contact the GM that gets transformed before being absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Biotransformation of BPs by GM is linked with the enhancement of bioactivity/toxicity diminishment of the BPs compared to parental phytochemicals. Therefore, the current review focuses on the role of BPs in shaping GM for the prevention and treatment of human diseases.

Abiotic causes contribute to disease severity in several crops. The threat posed by increasing soil salinity to Fusarium wilt severity in chickpea is not thoroughly worked out. To determine the same, chickpea plants were challenged against the wilt pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris ( Foc-49 ) in salinity-stressed (FocNaCl) or non-stressed (Foc) soils, and the results were compared with the results from plants grown only in salinity without the pathogen (NaCl) and control (C). The antioxidant activities, G-protein-mediated defence signalling, and expression of defence genes in chickpea were enhanced in the salinity (NaCl) and suppressed in the combined treatment (FocNaCl). The defence genes in chickpea were up-regulated by 2–3 times in NaCl compared to FocNaCl indicating suppression of the defence responses by the pathogen Foc-49 . Similarly, the indicators of wound-healing responses in chickpea roots were also suppressed in FocNaCl that were otherwise up-regulated in NaCl. Additionally, NaCl-mediated tissue damage facilitated Foc-49 colonization on chickpea roots in FocNaCl compared to Foc and resulted in severe root rotting and wilt incidence. From the results, it can be concluded that chickpea plants become more vulnerable to Fusarium wilt due to salinity-induced root tissue damage coupled with suppression of a variety of defence signals such as G-protein-mediated defence signalling and wound-healing responses. The results also highlight the potential threats posed by increasing soil salinity to diseases like Fusarium wilt in crops.

A cadmium (Cd)-tolerant bacterium Ochrobactrum intermedium BB12 was isolated from sewage waste collected from the municipal sewage dumping site of Bhopal, India. The bacterium showed multiple heavy metal tolerance ability and had the highest minimum inhibitory concentration of 150 mg L-1 of Cd. Growth kinetics, biosorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies on BB12 in the presence of Cd suggested biosorption as primary mode of interaction. SEM and TEM studies revealed surface deposition of Cd. FTIR spectra indicated nitrogen atom in exopolysaccharides secreted by BB12 to be the main site for Cd attachment. The potential of BB12 to alleviate the impact of Cd toxicity in spinach plants (Spinacia oleracea L.) var. F1-MULAYAM grown in the soil containing Cd at 25, 50, and 75 mg kg(-1) was evaluated. Without bacterial inoculation, plants showed delayed germination, decrease in the chlorophyll content, and stunted growth at 50 and 75 mg kg(-1) Cd content. Bacterial inoculation, however, resulted in the early germination, increased chlorophyll, and increase in shoot (28.33%) and root fresh weight (72.60%) at 50 mg kg(-1) of Cd concentration after 75 days of sowing. Due to bacterial inoculation, elevated proline accumulation and lowered down superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity was observed in the Cd-stressed plants. The isolate BB12 was capable of alleviating Cd from the soil by biosorption as evident from significant reduction in the uptake/translocation and bioaccumulation of Cd in bacteria itself and in the plant parts of treated spinach. Potential PGP prospects and heavy metal bioremediation capability of BB12 can make the environmental application of the organism a promising approach to reduce Cd toxicity in the crops grown in metal-contaminated soils.