Executive Summary : | The global population burst is a major concern, and by 2050, we will need to feed two billion additional individuals. New approaches to improving yield, improving nutrient content, and improving disease-resistant crops need to be established urgently. Natural plant defense activators against biotic attackers have been marketed for crop protection. sustained defense activation during the plant, however, is costly in terms of energy, and long-term activation of induced defenses can affect yield. 'Priming' is an alternative to direct defence activation. Priming is one of the most economical and effective modes of resistance because it prevents wasteful metabolic consumption in plants. Priming is the intentional, but regulated, use of mild stress (microbes, chemicals, or abiotic factors) so that the plant could develop a memory of stress and come under alert. such plants, when faced with a hostile environment in the future, recognise the stressful situation and enhance their defence system in a robust manner against the enemy to protect themselves more effectively. More precisely, we could call it an "on-demand defensive strategy”. We have recently made the significant discovery that descendants of primed plants are more resistant than their offspring of nonprimed plants that are genetically identical (singh et al., 2017; Tiwari et al., 2022). Wheat is among the most essential cereal crops that form a major part of the human diet. and hence is popularly called "global grain". A hemibiotrophic, phytopathogenic fungus, Bipolaris sorokiniana, is a well-known cause of spot blotch in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the hot and humid regions of the world. spot blotch causes major yield losses to wheat crops grown in warm, humid regions worldwide. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), refers to free-living soil bacteria that flourish in the rhizosphere, aggressively colonise plant roots, and promote plant development (Canto et al., 2020). In past research PGPR are developed and marketed as bioinoculants and phytoprotective microbial products because of these direct and indirect impacts they have on host plants. (García-Fraile, P et al., 2015), but less is known about the potential of PGPR to prime resistance to biotic stresses in wheat, such as attack by pathogens. Our recent discoveries on the potential use of priming and intergenerational immune priming (IGIP) in sustainable agriculture hold promise in terms of their application to the aforementioned problem. The opportunity to increase resistance to pests and diseases through PGPR priming creates a new process by which dependency on chemicals can be reduced without altering the genetic make-up of our elite crop varieties. This might be a non-pesticide alternative for sustainable crop protection. The proposed research will involve PGPR mediated plant defence priming in wheat and could prove an important tool in sustainable agriculture. |