UNRAVELING THE POTENTIAL OF ACC DEAMINASE-PRODUCING MICROBES IN VARIOUS AGRICULTURAL STRESSES: CURRENT STATUS, LIMITATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

More than 50 of the main crops in the world are lost to agricultural stressors, either biotic or abiotic. It has been demonstrated that using chemical approaches to boost plant yield causes other serious problems, including a decline in soil fertility and significant health problems. While advanced plant biotechnology techniques, like genetic modification, still faces ethical questions, unpredictable environmental risks, challenges in their usability and commercial viability, as well as high labour and costs. Using plant-associated microbes with 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACCD) activity can be a solution to speed up plant production upon environmental stresses. They offer stress-protective responses by reducing the production of the plant stress hormone ethylene to a level that is not detrimental to plants. Furthermore, adopting ACCD-producing microbes with additional supporting traits or mixing them with other beneficial microbes in a consortium can be a promising strategy to sustain their effectiveness in practical use. This paper reviews the current research on the role of ACCD-producing microbes in increasing plant productivity under various stresses, along with their limitations and recommendations for field application.