Endophytic communities of rhizobacteria and the strategies required to create yield enhancing associations with crops

The plant kingdom is colonized by a diverse array of endophytic bacteria which form non-pathogenic relationships with their hosts. When beneficial, such associations can stimulate plant growth, increase disease resistance, improve the plant's ability to withstand environmental stresses (e.g. drought), or enhance N-2 fixation. Crop sequences can favour the build-up of advantageous associations of bacterial endophyte populations leading to the development and maintenance of beneficial host-endophyte allelopathies. Utilization of rhizobacteria in sustainable crop production systems will require strategies to create and maintain beneficial bacterial populations within crops (endophytes) and as well in the soils surrounding those crops. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.