BEHAVIORAL DUALISM OF ENDOPHYTES IN PLANT-MICROBE INTERACTION AND THEIR DIVERSE APPLICATIONS - A REVIEW

Abstract

Microbes are harmful as well as beneficial for the human, plants and environment. Plant-microbe interaction array depicts both mutualism and pathogenesis. This dual nature of microbes depends on their surrounding abiotic and biotic factors. Endophytes are plant symbionts, beneficial for plant health. Some microbes are harmful for plants and they also live inside the plants, are called pathogens. The interactions that exist between the endophytic communities have hardly been investigated. The microbes associated with the plants act mostly according to environmental factors. These factors have the ability to alter the nature of microbes from endophytes to pathogens and vice-versa. Thus, by modulating such environmental factors, these microbes can be designed to produce important secondary metabolites or desired products, either within the plants or under laboratory conditions. The plant-microbe interactions have immense research orientation in the near future. The international demand for medicinal plant-based resources has increased due to their augmented exploitation for research and development. Studies of such plants species having parallel phytochemical constituents or microbes producing similar constituents could be an effective way of circumventing this global demand gap. The present review gives a detailed description of the dual behavior that exists in plant endophytes. In addition, it details a state of coherence in their vivid mannerisms and various applications of microbes in different aspects, environmental safety, agriculture, and pollution control.