Symbiotic Root-Endophytic Soil Microbes Improve Crop Productivity and Provide Environmental Benefits

Table 2

Examples of control or inhibition of plant pathogens or pests by endophytic plant microbes.

Disease or pathogen	Symbiont	Plant	Response of plants to endophytes	Reference
Numerous soil pathogens, including Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Sclerotinia, Macrophomina, and Cylindrocladium	Various rhizobia	Legumes, including soybean, chickpea, pea, lentil, lupine, and fava bean	Control of many pathogens	[84]
Phytophthora cinnamon	Bradyrhizobium japonicum	Soybean	The bacteria also colonized the pathogen	[85]
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (white rot)	Mesorhizobium loti	Indian mustard	Nearly complete control of white rot	[86]
Powdery mildew	AMF (Funneliformis mosseae)	Barley	Induced resistance gave a high degree of control	[87]
Tomato leaf curl virus	AMF (Funneliformis mosseae)	Tomato	Systemic resistance reduced disease severity	[88]
Phytophthora late blight	AMF (Rhizophagus irregularis)	Potato	Symptoms reduced, but not under conditions of high disease pressure	[78]
Spiroplasma citri	AMF (Glomus mosseae)	Madagascar periwinkle	Control occurred, but another pathogen was not controlled	[79]
Various nematodes	AMF	Various plants in summary	Wide variety of plants are protected against these round worms	[80]
Numerous root rot pathogens including Verticillium, Fusarium foot rot, Rhizoctonia, and Thielavopsis	P. indica	Various plants and pathogens in summary	Wide variety of plants protected against these fungal pathogens	[31]
Fungal diseases of leaves, including Alternaria brassicae, Botrytis cinerea, and powdery mildew	P. indica	Chickpea, barley, and others	Disease control of above-ground parts even though symbiont only in roots; antioxidant systems are important	[51, 89]
Fusarium head blight	P. indica	Wheat	Grain disease occurred even though symbiont was only in roots; also reduced Fusarium mycotoxin production	[90]
Various root and foliar pathogens	Trichoderma spp	Various plants	Numerous examples of control of pathogens in roots and above-ground plant organs	[7]
Various root nematodes	Trichoderma spp	Tomato	Control occurred with systemic control demonstrated using split-root plants	[56]