Plant Growth-Promoting Endophytic Fungi from Different Habitats and Their Potential Applications in Agriculture

Endophytes are beneficial microbes that possess important function in crop health, therefore attracting huge interest among scientists of various fields around the globe. A novel endophyte or endophytic consortiums which are constantly associated with diverse crops play significant part in improving the crop health, which is also essential for sustainable agriculture. This chapter highlights the importance of fungal endophytes for sustainable agriculture. Endophytes can increase the crop growth through direct or indirect plant growth-promoting (PGP) attributes including phytohormone, antimicrobial compounds production and solubilization of phosphorus, potassium and zinc. In the fungal endophytic relationships, growth-promoting fungi colonize in the host plants and present asymptomatically are often functional in nutrients uptake, increases plant growth, enhances stress resistance in plants, suppresses soil-borne pathogenic organisms and development of competitor and enhances resistance to disease. Sustainable agriculture requires different approaches that help to enhance food production and decreases the damages caused to the crop, soil and human health. Utilization of fungal endophytes as plant growth promoters is a remedial alternative for traditional chemical farming, which is based on toxic and deadly chemical pesticides/fertilizers that start their journey as soil microbiomes by different mechanisms whenever crops deal with adverse biotic and abiotic stress factors such as drought, cold, salinity and pathogenesis. Fungal endophytes help plants to adapt under such abiotic stress via induced systemic resistance, bioremediation and biocontrol.