Molecular Microbiology Research 2024, Vol.14, No.2, 99-108 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mmr 104 conditions by altering physiological responses to water stress. This suggests that breeding strategies incorporating beneficial endophytes from wild relatives could enhance the resilience of modern crops to abiotic stresses. Furthermore, the diversity of fungal endophytes in wild wheat ancestors like Triticum dicoccoides and Aegilops sharonensis offers a rich reservoir of beneficial microbes that can be utilized in breeding programs to improve modern wheat varieties (Sun et al., 2020). Figure 2 Germination of wheat seedlings in-vitro(Adopted from Shahid et al., 2022) Image caption: (A) effect of NaCl concentration on seedling length; (B) fungal-infected and inoculated with BPR-9; and (C) non-inoculated and PGPR-inoculated seedlings. Effect of endophytic isolate BPR-9 on growth attributes of wheat seedlings under salt stress: (D) seed germination; (E) radicle length; (F) plumule length; (G) plumule biomass; (H) radicle biomass; and (I) and vigor index. Each bar or point represents the mean of five replicates (n=5). Corresponding error bars represent standard deviation (S.D.) of five replicates. Different letters represent mean values that are significantly different according to DMRT test (Adopted from Shahid et al., 2022) 6.2.2 Field trials and performance evaluation Field trials are essential to evaluate the performance of endophyte-enhanced crops under real-world conditions. Studies have demonstrated that endophyte-treated wheat plants exhibit reduced levels of stress damage markers and improved physiological status under drought conditions (Llorens et al., 2019). Similarly, endophytic bacteria like Priestia aryabhattai have been shown to enhance salt tolerance in wheat by modulating physio-biochemical mechanisms, leading to improved growth and stress resilience (Shahid et al., 2022). These findings underscore the importance of conducting extensive field trials to assess the efficacy of endophyte-enhanced crops in various environmental conditions. Additionally, the use of endophytes as biocontrol agents has shown promise in managing plant diseases, further supporting their potential in sustainable agriculture (Silva et al., 2019; Chaudhary et al., 2022).
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