The use of microbial plant protection products is growing and their importance will strongly increase due to political and public pressure. World population is growing and the amount of food needed by 2050 will be double of what is produced now whereas the area of agricultural land is decreasing. We must increase crop yield in a sustainable way. Chemical plant growth promoters must be replaced by microbiological products. Also here, the use of microbial products is growing and their importance will strongly increase. A growing area of agricultural land is salinated. Global warming will increase this process. Plants growth is inhibited by salt or even made impossible and farmers tend to disuse the most salinated lands. Microbes have been very successfully used to alleviate salt stress of plants. Chemical pollution of land can make plant growth difficult and crops grown are often polluted and not suitable for consumption. Microbes have been used to degrade these chemical pollutants.

A constant research effort to understand plant-microbe interactions makes it indispensable to keep abreast of the latest research developments. Researchers from a range of disciplines have used multiple approaches to infer this field. With the advent of next-generation techniques, both molecular and computational, the field has entered a new phase. These approaches often result in massive information, which is sometimes tangled and in need of further analysis. These types of analyses also require cutting-edge data analytics as well as efficient statistical models. Plant-Microbe Interactions: Harnessing Next-Generation Molecular Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture provides a comprehensive picture of the modern-day analytics and approaches being used to provide insights into the interactions between plant and microbe. A wide range of technologies are explored along with practical guides toward these techniques. A detailed understanding of omics data in various areas could be obtained from this compilation. Key Features: • Crosstalk between plant and microbe • Overview of advanced molecular techniques used to study plant-microbe interaction • Practical guide to technologies such as NGS • Omics data analysis used to study plant-microbe interaction • Role of soil metagenomics • Advanced technologies such as nanotechnology and CRISPR serving to study plant-microbe interaction This book will serve as a great reference to various next-generation techniques in the field of plant-microbe interaction, thereby helping to better understand the mechanism. This will also help budding researchers to shape their research in similar areas.

Plants and microbes have co-evolved and interacted with each other in nature. Understanding the complex nature of the plant-microbe interface can pave the way for novel strategies to improve plant productivity in an eco-friendly manner. The microbes associated with plants, often called plant microbiota, are an integral part of plant life. The significance of the plant microbiome is a reliable approach toward sustainability to meet future food crises and rejuvenate soil health. Profiling plant-associate microbiomes (genome assemblies of all microbes) is an emerging concept in understanding plant-microbe interactions. Microbiota extends the plant capacity to acclimatize fluctuating environmental conditions through several mechanisms. Thus, unraveling the mystery of plant-microbe dynamics through latest technologies to better understand the role of metabolites and signal pathway mechanisms is very important. This book shares the latest insight on omics technologies to unravel plant-microbe dynamic interactions and other novel phytotechnologies for cleaning contaminated soils. Besides, it also provides brief insight on the recently discovered clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats CRISPR-Cas9, which is a genome editing tool to explore plant-microbe interactions and how this genome editing tool helps to improve the ability of microbes/plants to combat abiotic/biotic stresses.

The book addresses current public concern about the adverse effect of agrochemicals and their effect on the agro-ecosystem. This book also aims to satisfy and contribute to the increasing interest in understanding the co-operative activities among microbial populations and their interaction with plants. It contains chapters on a variety of interrelated aspects of plant-microbe interactions with a single theme of stress management and sustainable agriculture. The book will be very useful for students, academicians, researcher working on plant-microbe interaction and also for policy makers involved in food security and sustainable agriculture.

Molecular Aspects of Plant Beneficial Microbes in Agriculture explores their diverse interactions, including the pathogenic and symbiotic relationship which leads to either a decrease or increase in crop productivity. Focusing on these environmentally-friendly approaches, the book explores their potential in changing climatic conditions. It presents the exploration and regulation of beneficial microbes in offering sustainable and alternative solutions to the use of chemicals in agriculture. The beneficial microbes presented here are capable of contributing to nutrient balance, growth regulators, suppressing pathogens, orchestrating immune response and improving crop performance. The book also offers insights into the advancements in DNA technology and bioinformatic approaches which have provided in-depth knowledge about the molecular arsenal involved in mineral uptake, nitrogen fixation, growth promotion and biocontrol attributes.

Zusammenfassung: This edited book covers the latest trends to improve soil health. It provides an easy-to-understand information to the readers. This book acts as a reference book for various agronomists and research scholars working in the field of agriculture. This edited book covers advanced technologies and practices carried out worldwide to improve soil health. In the present scenario, it is very important to save soil health and replenish it in a sustainable manner from various anthropogenic hazards. As soil is the source to almost all lives on earth and it is duty, the scientific community is developing ways to disseminate and communicate the most recent advancements to restore its health. Content of the book is designed in such a way that it provides a compressive information to the readers to restore the soil health that will ultimately help to improve the health of microbes, animals as well as plants that thrive in the soil and ultimately the quality of life of human being. This book helps research scholars and teachers working in agriculture, horticulture, and environmental management by utilizing advances in microbiology and biotechnology. It is of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, researchers, environmentalists, agriculture and horticulture scientists, capacity builders, policy makers and all other stakeholders.