Impact of Phosphate Solubilizing Fungi of Different Habitats on Plant Growth-A Review

Phosphorus is the second essential macroelements after nitrogen and its deficiency in soil is the major problems in agriculture. Moreover, large amount of synthetic phosphatic fertilizers are added in regular basis for maintaining the phosphorus deficiency but most of the fertilizers get precipitated in the form of different salts in soils and remain unavailable to the plants. Phosphate solubilizing microorganisms have the potential to solubilize the fixed phosphorus in soil especially fungi are found to be more efficient solubilzer than other microorganisms. Phosphatesolubilizing fungi (PSF) have been reported from various habitats such as agricultural fields, saline area, mines, vermicompost etc. Inoculation of PSF in plants results in improved plant growth and yield of several crops such as cereals, legumes, fibers, vegetables and other crop plants. Thus, the use of microbial inoculants particularly the PSF instead of chemical fertilizer have been found effective for growth and yield of plants in sustainable manner.