Mametja Neo M, Ramadwa Thanyani E, Managa Muthumuni, Masebe Tracy M
Department of Life and Consumer Science, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa, Florida Campus, Johannesburg 1710, South Africa.
Institute for Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability (iNanoWS), College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, Florida Campus, Johannesburg 1710, South Africa.
Plants (Basel). 2025 Aug 12;14(16):2506. doi: 10.3390/plants14162506.
Bacterial endophytes have emerged as critical components of plant microbiomes, offering multifaceted benefits ranging from growth promotion to stress resilience. This review synthesizes two decades of research, from 2004 to 2024, on bacterial endophyte identification and applications, highlighting advances in both traditional culture-based techniques and modern omics approaches. The review also focuses on interactions between these microorganisms and their host plants, emphasizing their roles in biocontrol, phytoremediation, and nanoparticle biosynthesis. While significant progress has been made in characterizing cultivable bacterial endophytes, challenges persist in accessing unculturable species and understanding strain-specific functional mechanisms. The integration of metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metabolomics has begun unraveling this hidden diversity, revealing novel metabolic pathways and plant-microbe communication systems. There have been limitations in endophyte isolation protocols and field applications, and therefore a need exists for standardized frameworks to bridge lab-based discoveries with agricultural practices. Cutting-edge multi-omics techniques, such as genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, and phenomics, should be used more in future research to clarify the mechanistic underpinnings of plant-endophyte interactions to thoroughly profile the microbial communities and unlock their functional potential under diverse environmental conditions. Overall, bacterial endophytes present viable paths toward sustainable farming methods, supporting food security and crop resilience in the face of environmental difficulties by providing a transformative opportunity for next-generation agriculture, mitigating climate-related agricultural stressors, reducing dependence on synthetic agrochemicals, and enhancing crop productivity.
细菌内生菌已成为植物微生物群的关键组成部分，带来从促进生长到增强抗逆性等多方面的益处。本综述综合了2004年至2024年这二十年间关于细菌内生菌鉴定及应用的研究，突出了传统基于培养的技术和现代组学方法两方面的进展。该综述还聚焦于这些微生物与其宿主植物之间的相互作用，强调它们在生物防治、植物修复和纳米颗粒生物合成中的作用。虽然在可培养细菌内生菌的表征方面已取得显著进展，但在获取不可培养物种以及理解菌株特异性功能机制方面仍存在挑战。宏基因组学、宏转录组学和代谢组学的整合已开始揭示这种隐藏的多样性，揭示新的代谢途径和植物 - 微生物通讯系统。内生菌分离方案和田间应用存在局限性，因此需要标准化框架来弥合基于实验室的发现与农业实践之间的差距。未来研究应更多地使用前沿的多组学技术，如基因组学、转录组学、代谢组学、蛋白质组学和表型组学，以阐明植物 - 内生菌相互作用的机制基础，全面描绘微生物群落，并在不同环境条件下释放其功能潜力。总体而言，细菌内生菌为可持续农业方法提供了可行途径，通过为下一代农业提供变革性机遇、减轻与气候相关的农业压力源、减少对合成农用化学品的依赖以及提高作物生产力，来保障粮食安全并增强作物在面对环境困难时的抗逆性。
