Plant-microbe interaction mediated salinity stress tolerance for sustainable crop production

Abiotic stresses come in a new form with changing global climatic conditions and make their way by disrupting the vital physiological, biochemical and molecular events of plants leading to significant yield losses. Among various abiotic stresses, salinity stress is one of the major abiotic constraints to plant growth and production globally. Salinity causes several destructive effects such as oxidative stress, osmotic stress, and imbalance in the nutrients uptake in plant system that creates difficult situation for the normal metabolic functioning. Plants are capable enough to make adjustments and adapt diverse defense approaches including stress signaling, maintenance of antioxidant machinery, ability to decrease the toxic molecule level and regulation of the plant hormone levels to sustain under stressful conditions. These strategies can be more effectively improved with the help of certain microbes in better dealing with an undesirable environment. Microbe association with the plant makes a great alliance that builds tolerance mechanism more robust and promotes the activities of various enzymes, hormonal regulation, and transport of important elements. Microbes act as a mediator agent between the stress and host plants. In the recent years, the endophytic fungus, Piriformospora (Serendipita) indica comes as a friend indeed with the ability to colonizing the roots of the wide host range of plant, fighting the stresses and enlarges the survival and performance of plants. In this review, we focused on an appropriate understanding of plant-microbe association impact in dealing with stress situations.