The Role of Cyanobacteria in Agriculture

Abstract

Microorganisms offer a pool of properties which could be utilized for the benefit of the ecosystem and mankind. They have always played the central role in evolution and shaped out the existing life on earth. The population increase needs to keep pace with the agricultural front to meet the demands with supply. As the crops and other plants are sessile they have to combat biotic and abiotic stresses. The stressful environmental conditions including the stress, soil fertility issues, presence of pathogens etc. can hamper the growth and development of the plants and affect the crop productivity. These conditions could be regulated by using fertilizers specially biofertilizers, as the chemical fertilizers are effective but have deleterious effects on the ecosystem. This article focuses the role of cyanobacteria in agriculture to improve the crop yield. These photosynthetic prokaryotes fix the atmospheric nitrogen into utilizable form and make it available to the plants. They also form symbiotic associations and provide nourishment to the host and in turn get housing either endophytic or exophytic. The growth enhancement was observed when cyanobacteria were inoculated in the fields. This effect was due to hormones like cytokinin, gibberellins and auxin which accelerated growth. Elicitor molecules from these organisms like certain peptides, vitamins, carbohydrates are reported to induce pathogenesis in plants. The exo-polysaccharide of cyanobacteria improves the soil quality and fertility. The recent trend involves the manipulation of the higher plants with the genes from these organisms to improve their production and stress related properties.