Publication

Abstract : About 80% of the Earth’s surface consists of extreme environmental conditions that are not suitable for human life. A significant increase in atmospheric temperature is the main issue for the agricultural scientific community to protect crop plants from high temperatures. Most of the crops are sensitive to heat stresses, which cause serious problems for global food production via small grain crops. To overcome these challenges, the use of thermotolerant microorganisms is the most eco-friendly strategy. Microorganisms are capable of growth and survival at both ends of the temperature spectrum, from low to high. A wide range of microorganisms can grow and survive at high temperatures. Because of their well-developed structural and chemical-based heat-tolerant mechanisms, they are usually known as thermophilic microbes (thermophiles). Thermophilic microbes contain thermostable proteins and enzymes with protective mechanisms for their nucleic acid biomolecules from denaturation at high temperatures. Such thermophilic microbes mainly belong to bacteria, archaea, as well as eukaryotic organisms, e.g., Trichoderma, Chaetomium, Rhizomucor, Myceliophthora, Fervidobacterium, Bacillus, Thermotoga, and Pyrococcus species. These microorganisms may be found in diverse places such as terrestrial hot springs, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, sun-heated soils, volcanic areas, and geothermal areas. During these years, more scientists have been interested in working on their diversity, ecology, physiology, and applications. Applications of these microbes are significantly increasing progressively in different parts, e.g., biotechnology, agriculture, industry, pharmaceutics, and medicine. Among them, thermophilic microbes may have a main effect in agriculture, where they play different key roles in the elevation of stress tolerance in plants, plant growth promotion, and soil fertility restoration. For biotic stress elimination, the microorganisms have various modes of action, such as competition, hyperparasitism, antimicrobial compounds, and secondary metabolites. Therefore, this chapter will shed light on the mechanisms of adaptation of thermophilic microbes, their biocontrol potential, and their applications to crop disease management and sustainable agriculture promotion. This would provide a profound perception of the mechanism of the plant-thermophilic microbe interaction. With upgraded knowledge developed about the governing action mechanisms of thermophilic microorganisms, it would be easy to target their next-generation applications in different parts of agriculture.