Microbial Symbionts of Aquatic Plants

Aquatic plants have been used over time in several ways which include use as food and feed supplement, for bioenergy production, for phytoremediation and wastewater treatment, to name a few. Like in the terrestrial ecosystem, interactions between microorganisms and plants are diverse in an aquatic ecosystem. In the present chapter, one of the positive interactions, symbiosis between the microorganisms and aquatic plants has been discussed focusing on how this interaction can prove to be beneficial to aquatic plants. Some of the features like biofiltration, nitrogen fixation, phytohormone production, and bioenergy production from aquatic plants and the role of microbial symbionts in these processes have been discussed. One of the re-emerging model plants, duckweeds have been considered as an example in order to describe the abovesaid. Lemnaceae (duckweeds) constituting the fastest-growing flowering plants have gained attention in terms of their practical applications because of their huge potential for biomass production. As a future prospect, sustainable ways of use of aquatic plants and their biomass production should be a prime focus in aquatic research.