This book provides a comprehensive resource for researchers and students involved with studying the roles of Bacilli in sustainable crop production technologies. Chapters included in the book not only elaborate on beneficial traits of Bacilli, but also highlight utilization of these microbes for producing industrially important antibiotics, enzymes, probiotics and other useful biochemicals.

Feeding ever increasing world population from shrinking arable acreage led to a synthetic input (fertilizer, growth regulator, pesticide etc.) based crop production system, which has been creating both environmental and health hazards and may also make the whole production system unsustainable. Researchers, food producers and consumers alike, now realize that this world needs effective, environmentally smart agricultural technologies that are safe for people use less synthetic inputs and protect natural resources. To overcome the challenge of increasing food production witha significant reduction of agrochemicals use, a great deal of interest and research have been devoted to beneficial microorganisms/biostimulants in recent days with noteworthy positive results. Bacillus based biopesticide together with other bio-rational approaches may play a critical role in helping all the key drivers of sustainable, environmentally responsible food production with enhanced food quality. Although multiple strains of Bacillus spp. showed promise to contribute to the sustainable agriculture by making nutrients available to plants, providing additional defense to adverse abiotic and biotic stresses, research on Bacillus based product formulation, rate and crop selection, optimization of application timing are urgently needed. As crop plants are more vulnerable to abiotic and biotic stresses at the seedling stage, optimization of application timing should aid in alleviating those stresses for the successful completion of life cycle of a plant.

Autorentext
Editors: 
Prof. M. Tofazzal Islam, Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agr Uni, Department of Biotechnology, 
Dr. M. Mahfuz Rahman, West Virginia University
Prof. Piyush Pandey, Assam University, Department of Microbiology
Prof. Michael Henry Boehme, Humboldt University of Berlin, Faculty of Life Sciences
Prof. Geert Haesaert, Ghent University, Department Applied Biosciences

Zusammenfassung

The Gram-positive and spore-forming Bacilli **are the most dominant group of bacteria that exist in various ecological niches on the earth. They represent one of the most important unmapped pools of biodiversity with immense potential of applications in agriculture, environment, and industry. As these bacteria are highly tolerant to stressful environment and enhance plant tolerance to harsh environment such as salinity, drought, and heavy metal toxicity, plant-associated Bacilli have high potential for promoting sustainable crop production. Many species of Bacilli are being commercially used as phytostimulator and biofertilizer. Some of them are applied as biopesticide for protecting crop plants from phytopathogens and insect pests. The Bacillus-based products are becoming popular in ecologically sound and climate resilient agricultural production system. In fact, Bacillus and allied species based formulations are already dominating the biopesticides market, although, to compete with other formulations and chemical alternatives, the biology of Bacillus had to be understood from perspective of such applications. Our understanding of the biology and molecular-basis of the beneficial effects of plant-associated Bacilli has greatly been progressed in recent years through genomics, metagenomics, post-genomics and metabolomics studies. The volume two of the series Bacilli and Agrobiotechnology comprehensively reviews and updates current knowledge of Bacilli as phytostimulant and biological control of plant pests. Better understanding the biology, ecology and mechanism of action of the beneficial strains of Bacilli will play a role in the development of products to support green biotechnology in agriculture and industries.

Inhalt

1.     Management of Fungal Diseases on Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Crops in Greenhouses Using Bacillus subtilis

Li Ni and Zamir K. Punja**

2.     Bacillus species: A potential plant growth regulator**

Usha Rani and Vivek Kumar**

3.     Bacilli in the Biocontrol of Mycotoxins   ****

Subbaiah Chalivendra and Jong Hyun Ham**

4.     **Bacillus subtilis **and Its Effect on the Post-harvest of Fruit and Flowers

Rivera Chávez Fabián Heriberto, Mena Violante Hortencia Gabriela, Rubi Arriaga Martin, Bravo Jaime, Abraham Juárez María del Rosario, Valdés Rodríguez Silvia Edith and Victor Olalde Portugal

5.     Plant growth-promotion by ACC deaminase-producing Bacilli under salt stress conditions**

Gustavo Santoyo, Adrian Equihua, Aurora Flores, Edgardo Sepulveda, Eduardo Valencia-Cantero, Juan M. Sanchez-Yañez, Luzmaria R. Morales, M. Govindappa and Sergio de los Santos-Villalobos

6.     Bacillus subtilis**-Mediated Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plant****

Oksana Lastochkina

7.     Exploring the Utility of Aneurinibacillus as a Bioinoculant for Sustainable Crop Production and Environmental Applications**

Chandandeep Kaur, G. Selvakumar and A.N. Ganeshamurthy

8.     Phylogeny and Taxonomy of agriculturally important Bacillus species*Roomina Christopher Dunlap*****

9.     Endophytic Bacillus species induced systemic resistance to plant diseases Mohammad Tofajjal Hossain and Young Ryun Chung

10.  Genomics and Post-genomics Approaches for Elucidating Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Growth Promoting Bacilli

Musrat Zahan Surovy, Dipali Rani Gupta, Nur Uddin Mahmud, Zerihun T. Dame, Prodip Kumar Roy, Md Tofazzal Islam

11.  Tapping the Potential of Metabolomics in New Natural Products Discovery from Bacillus Species

Zerihun T. Dame and M. Tofazzal Islam

12.  Genomic Insights and Comparative Genomics of Bacillus Species Having Diverse Mechanisms of Biocontrol against Fungal Phytopathogens

Jina Rajkumari, Piyush Pandey

13.** Bacillus** species as biocontrol agents for fungal plant pathogens

Çisem Bulut Albayrak**

14.  Application Method and Efficacy of Bacillus spp. in Mitigating Abiotic and Biotic Stresses and Enhancing Plant Performance

*Mahfuz Rahman and Lee Ann Moccaldi *****

15.  Bacillus thuringiensis**-based Gene Pyramiding a way Forward for a Combined Horizontal and Vertical Resistance in Plant** ****** *Jane Choene Se...