Aug 2026· Journal of Fungi· Vol 12· 0 citations· 99 references
Medicine
TL;DR
The synthesis shows that selected crop–strain systems improve root architecture, photosynthesis, antioxidant regulation, osmotic adjustment, nutrient acquisition, ion homeostasis, hormonal balance, and stress-responsive gene expression, and biochar co-application should not be interpreted as a carrier formulation without direct validation.
Abstract
Abiotic stresses increasingly threaten crop productivity, whereas reliance on chemical and resource-intensive interventions can compromise environmental sustainability. Existing literature identifies Trichoderma spp. as multifunctional biocontrol agents, biofertilizers, and microbial biostimulants capable of influencing plant growth, stress signaling, and rhizosphere processes; however, evidence remains fragmented across strains, crops, formulations, and stress conditions. This review aimed to integrate current knowledge on Trichoderma-mediated resilience to salinity, drought, heavy metals, temperature extremes, and emerging pollutants, while distinguishing experimentally validated mechanisms from statistical associations and conceptual inference. It evaluates constraints governing reproducibility from controlled studies to field deployment. The synthesis shows that selected crop–strain systems improve root architecture, photosynthesis, antioxidant regulation, osmotic adjustment, nutrient acquisition, ion homeostasis, hormonal balance, and stress-responsive gene expression. Benefits arise through coordinated delivery, root colonization, metabolite and protein signaling, physiological reprogramming, and rhizosphere modulation. Nevertheless, microbiome co-occurrence patterns do not establish causal network repair, evidence for broad heat and cold protection remains limited, and biochar co-application should not be interpreted as a carrier formulation without direct validation. Future progress requires strain- and crop-specific screening, mechanistic gene and protein studies, standardized formulations, combined-stress experiments, multi-location field trials, biosafety evaluation, and farmer-level economic assessment to develop reliable precision microbial technologies.
Climate change intensifies abiotic stresses that limit crop productivity, requiring innovative strategies to enhance resilience without compromising sustainability. Nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as potential modulators of plant stress responses by influencing molecular regulation, physiological adaptation, and stress resilience. However, current evidence remains fragmented because studies are dispersed across different NP types, crop species, abiotic stress conditions, and omics platforms, with most investigations conducted under controlled experimental conditions and few integrating molecular responses with agronomic performance. In this study, we synthesize evidence from plant physiology, omics (including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and soil microbiome analyses), and agronomic studies to provide an integrated conceptual synthesis linking NPs' physicochemical properties with multi-omics reprogramming and yield-related outcomes under abiotic stress. Collectively, the available evidence indicates that NP size, surface charge, composition, and redox activity strongly influence uptake behavior, intracellular interactions, and signaling intensity, thereby shaping coordinated system-level responses rather than isolated modifications in individual genes, proteins, or metabolites. Across abiotic stresses, NPs modulate stress responses through effects on redox homeostasis, hormonal signaling, ion transport, metabolic flexibility, and rhizosphere interactions. However, their effects vary with NP properties, application conditions, plant species, and stress environments, ranging from stress mitigation to growth inhibition. These responses can improve photosynthetic stability, reproductive performance, and resource allocation, contributing to partial recovery of growth and yield under certain stress conditions. Conversely, excessive or poorly controlled NP exposure disrupts redox balance and growth, underscoring the importance of narrow efficacy windows. We further identify key limitations in the existing literature, including dose and crop specificity, short-term experimental designs, limited field validation, and limited mechanistic linkage between multi-omics responses and agronomic performance, highlighting the need for synchronized multi-omics validation. We contend that future advancements require a transition from proof-of-concept demonstrations to predictive, system-level approaches that integrate multi-omics with developmental stage, environmental context, and yield stability. By reframing NPs as context-dependent modulators of stress resilience rather than universal growth enhancers, this review provides a conceptual foundation for their responsible evaluation and potential application in climate-resilient agriculture.
Rayyan Khan, Nisar Uddin, A. Srivastava et al.· Microbiology Research· 0 citations
A unified framework that merges mechanistic discovery, microbiome-assisted breeding, soil and water management and systems-level predictive modelling is proposed, essential for developing climate-resilient crops to sustain dryland agriculture.
Muhammad Adil, Isma Gul, Siqi Lu et al.· Plant, Cell and Environment· 0 citations
Legume–rhizobium symbiosis is fundamental to sustainable agriculture because it supplies biologically fixed nitrogen, improves soil fertility, and reduces reliance on synthetic fertilizers. However, abiotic and chemical stresses, including drought, salinity, flooding, temperature extremes, heavy metals, and organic pollutants, disrupt nodulation and biological nitrogen fixation, limiting crop productivity and ecosystem sustainability. This review synthesizes current knowledge of the regulatory networks that enable legume–rhizobium symbiosis to adapt to environmental stress. We discuss how stress influences symbiotic signaling, infection, oxygen homeostasis, nitrogenase protection, phytohormonal regulation, antioxidant defenses, exopolysaccharide production, and plasmid-mediated adaptation. We further highlight the roles of root nodule-associated microorganisms and microbial interactions in maintaining symbiotic stability under adverse conditions. Finally, recent advances in multi-omics, genome editing, synthetic biology, and microbial consortia are evaluated for their potential to improve stress-resilient bioinoculants. Collectively, this review emphasizes that resilience of the legume–rhizobium symbiosis is an integrated property of both plant and microbes and identifies key regulatory mechanisms that can be exploited to develop climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.
Climate change-induced stresses, including drought, heat, and salinity, are increasingly constraining wheat productivity globally and pose a significant threat to global food security. Although beneficial rhizosphere microorganisms are known to enhance wheat stress tolerance, the mechanisms underlying wheat-microbiome interactions under climate-stress conditions remain poorly understood. This review highlights that wheat actively recruits and reshapes stress-resilient microbial communities, particularly members of Bacillus and Pseudomonas, which promote stress adaptation by regulating reactive oxygen species (ROS), phytohormone homeostasis, nutrient acquisition, and stress-responsive signalling pathways. Furthermore, wheat domestication has altered plant-microbe interactions, resulting in substantial differences in microbiome composition and functional potential between modern cultivars and their wild relatives. The wheat rhizosphere is a dynamic ecological interface where roots interact with diverse microbial communities that influence plant growth, nutrient cycling, and resilience to environmental stresses. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the effects of climate change on wheat physiology, growth, and rhizosphere microbiome composition, while examining how soil physicochemical properties shape microbial assembly and function. Particular emphasis is placed on the mechanisms by which beneficial microorganisms alleviate abiotic stress, including modification of root system architecture, antioxidant regulation, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production, osmolyte accumulation, nutrient mobilization, and mitigation of stress-induced ethylene through ACC deaminase activity. We also discuss plant-microbe communication networks mediated by root exudates, microbial signalling molecules, and hormonal crosstalk that govern microbial recruitment, colonization, and establishment within the rhizosphere. Recent advances in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and integrated multi-omics approaches have revealed that wheat dynamically restructures its microbiome in response to environmental stress, with host genotype serving as a key determinant of microbial community composition and function. By integrating evidence on soil properties, microbial functional traits, rhizosphere community dynamics, and wheat stress adaptation, this review provides a comprehensive framework for understanding microbiome-mediated stress resilience. Despite considerable progress, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding microbial community stability, functional redundancy, and the long-term field performance of microbial consortia across locations, seasons, and combined stress scenarios. Addressing these challenges through the integration of multi-omics technologies, microbiome-assisted breeding, synthetic microbial consortia, and climate-smart management strategies will be essential for developing resilient and sustainable wheat production systems under changing climatic conditions.
Vikas Verma, Yengkhom Linthoingambi Devi, Toijam Bidyalaxmi Devi et al.· Plant physiology and biochem...· 0 citations
This review systematizes current knowledge on the types of CAS, their interactions, and their impacts on plant physiological, molecular, and microbiological processes, and extrapolates from established mechanisms to propose how microbes may mitigate combined stresses.
O. Lastochkina, A. Avalbaev, A. Lubyanova et al.· Applied Biochemistry and Mic...· 0 citations
Plant–microbe interaction is an essential component of sustainable agriculture which promotes plant growth, improves nutrient assimilation, and enhances plant resistance to various environmental stress conditions. Beneficial microbes, such as rhizobacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, and endophytes, boost plant functions using molecular signaling, phytohormone modification, systemic resistance induction, and pathogen antagonism. The use of new multi-omics techniques has uncovered complicated communication systems mediated by root exudates, recognition via receptors and microbial community functioning. In this review, the current understanding of the molecular basis of plant–microbe associations and their roles in combating drought, salinity, temperature, and heavy metals stresses is summarized. Special attention is paid to the promising approach based on microbiome engineering, synthetic communities and next generation biofertilizers for climate-smart agriculture. The main difficulties associated with environmental fluctuations, host specificity, inconsistency at field scale, and the lack of omics and bioinoculant validation guidelines are also highlighted.
Bishal Sarkar, Saumendu Deb Roy· Discover Plants· 0 citations