Plants growth promoting fungi

The world's population is growing rapidly. To feed this large population, more crops must be produced. The broad use of fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs increases the productivity of existing agricultural lands and the amount of food production, but this increase in yield causes damage to the environment, soil degradation and the destruction of its natural microbial population. To prevent these harmful effects of the chemicals, an eco-friendly approach is needed to ensure human health and the environment. In the innovative view of agricultural production, there is a growing demand for the use of biofertilizers instead of agrochemicals. The use of beneficial microorganisms can be a new strategy to improve plant health and productivity. Natural microbial populations play an important role in the solubilizing and mineralizing of soil nutrients, which is very important for plant growth and development. Among the various microbial populations, fungi known as plants growth promoting fungi (PGPF) have recently received increasing attention. For decades, plant growth promoting fungi such as Trichoderma, Penicillium, Phoma, Aspergillus and Fusarium have been studied. Studies have shown that these fungi, regulate plant growth without environmental pollution and increase plant tolerance to plant pathogens. In this review a brief description of plant growth promoting fungi is given first. In the following, the nature and composition of these fungi as well as the mode of actions, formulation and related challenges will be concidered.