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Enhancement of Rhizobia–Legumes Symbioses and Nitrogen Fixation for Crops Productivity Improvement

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Microbial Strategies for Crop Improvement

Abstract

Rhizobia form a very interesting symbiotic relationship with leguminous plants. This relationship has attracted the attention of biologists all over the world due to the great impact of legumes for sustaining nutritional demands to humans and animals. Great efforts have been made to improve the symbiotic N2-fixing ability and productivity of legumes. The first step to improve legume productivity is to select effective (N2-fixing) rhizobia to be used as inoculants for the respective legumes. Recent studies reported about the wild-legume rhizobial ability to establish successful symbiosis with their original hosts, as well as with legume crops. In addition to the traditional approaches, modern strategies like genetic and biotechnological tools are adopted to unravel several molecular and genetic mechanisms controlling the rhizobia–legumes symbioses and to enhance N2 fixation and productivity of the legumes. Extensive research work should be continued to improve the inoculation technology using modern approaches, especially in N-poor lands. Successful symbioses between the bacteria and the legumes are not sustained unless the effects of environmental stresses such as salinity and drought are modulated. The majority of arable lands of the globe experience one or more environmental stresses, therefore stress-tolerant and effective N2-fixing legumes–rhizobia symbioses will be the only productive systems on these lands.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, 62511, Egypt

    Hamdi Hussein Zahran

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  1. Hamdi Hussein Zahran
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Correspondence to Hamdi Hussein Zahran .

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  1. Dept. Agricultural Microbiology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India

    Mohammad Saghir Khan , Almas Zaidi  & Javed Musarrat ,  & 

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Zahran, H.H. (2009). Enhancement of Rhizobia–Legumes Symbioses and Nitrogen Fixation for Crops Productivity Improvement. In: Khan, M.S., Zaidi, A., Musarrat, J. (eds) Microbial Strategies for Crop Improvement. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01979-1_11

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