Phosphate biofertilizers: Recent trends and new perspectives

Phosphate biofertilizers among many microbiological formulations play an important role in the sustainability of environment-prone agrosystems. Among the members of the heterogeneously distributed root-associated microbiome (rhizobiome), the phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) either alone or in association inhabiting the rhizospheric environments facilitate the growth and health of plants. In this chapter, the rationale for the introduction of phosphate biofertilizers in competitive agronomic practices is explained, including the mechanism of solubilization/mineralization, release of plant growth-accelerating active biomolecules, molecular engineering of PSM for increasing both phosphate-solubilizing/mineralizing efficiency and host range, and improvement of food crops under both conventional and derelict conditions due to abiotic stresses. Finally, it is time to expand the horizon of both basic and concept-based research and the field application of phosphate biofertilizers based on these components and take full advantage of their valuable, inherent, and inexpensive but massive plant growth-enhancing potentials to ameliorate stress and improve crop production to fulfill the food demand of alarmingly increasing human populations.