Plant-microbe interaction: prospects for crop improvement and management

In nature, plants and microorganisms interact constantly to modulate their growth and development. The interaction could be beneficial or hostile. Plants are constantly exposed to a range of pathogens, and have evolved mechanisms to fight the pathogen infections with the help of complex networking pathways. In addition to the pathogens, many beneficial organisms such as endophytes, of both, bacterial and fungal origin, are ubiquitously present in all plants. Unlike from their pathogenic counterparts, the endophytes do not cause any disease symptoms in their host plants. Some of the recent scientific discoveries and views concerning plant-microbe interactions are presented here.