ABSTRACT
This chapter presents exhaustive review on bacterial-mediated amelioration to plants under salt stress. Plants regulate their growth and development to counter numerous external stimuli and ever-changing environment upon induction of abiotic stress namely: drought, salinity, cold, heat, freezing chilling, nutrient, high light intensity, ozone and anaerobic stresses (less oxygen). Plant gowth promoting bacteria (PGPB) are the group of bacteria colonizing spermosphere of seed and are directly or indirectly involved in plant growth promotion via production and secretion of various regulatory chemicals in the vicinity of rhizosphere. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are most widely studied group of PGPB and based on their degree of association with plant root cells are now classified into extracellular-PGPR and intracellular-PGPR. PGPB-mediated direct methods make plants to grow well with good yield and biomass. Some of these methods improve availability of plant nutrients and include phosphate solubilization, iron sequestration and nitrogen fixation.
