Pseudomonas spp. in biological plant protection and growth promotion

Abstract

Nowadays in worldwide agriculture, sustainable strategies are implemented to reduce negative effects on ecosystems created by conventional practice, mainly environmental pollution caused by intensive use of fertilizers and chemical plant protection products. Bacteria from the genus Pseudomonas can be considered biocontrol and plant growth-promoting agents due to their various plant beneficial traits e.g., siderophores production, phytohormones synthesis, antagonism against phytopathogenic fungi. This is a reason for increasing researchers' interest in improving of existing or elaborating new technologies that enable the effective application of these bacteria in agriculture. Pseudomonads are non-sporulating bacteria and it is a major constraint for creating bioformulation for commercial use with a sufficiently high stable number of viable cells during shelf-life. Therefore, scientists are making efforts to improve techniques of bioformulations to enable large-scale production and use of pseudomonads under field conditions. The aim of this review is to describe traits of Pseudomonas spp. which are useful in plant protection and growth-promotion and to highlight examined techniques for preparing bioformulations containing pseudomonads with sufficiently long shelf life.