Abiotic stress responses and strategies of microbes mediated mitigation for sustainable agriculture

The most important limiting variables for agricultural output are abiotic stresses. Microorganisms, the most common residents of a wide range of habitats, have incredible metabolic skills that help them to cope up with abiotic challenges. Microbial interactions with plants are complex, crucial and dynamic process that influence local and systemic mechanisms in plants to provide defence against harsh external conditions because they are intrinsic part of the living ecosystem. At the same time, we need to have a better insights of plant responses to abiotic stresses as well as plant-microbe interactions that mitigate the effect of abiotic stress. The plant-microbe interaction is more sustainable, long term alternative and also a practical approach for feeding the world’s population with limited resources and minimal impact on environmental health. This paper outlines plant responses to abiotic stresses in terms of biochemical and molecular pathways and also highlight the phenomena of microbe-mediated stress reduction. © 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Society for Plant Research.