New Insights, Trends, and Challenges in the Development and Applications of Microbial Inoculants in Agriculture

Sergio de los Santos-Villalobos is the director of the Microbial Resource Biotechnology Laboratory at Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Mexico, where his research spans microbial ecology, plant–microorganism–soil interactions, microbial inoculant production, and agro-ecosystem conservation using isotopic techniques. His work integrates ecological, physiological, biochemical, and genetic approaches, from in vitro studies to field-level application. He has organized and taught numerous workshops, served as President of international scientific congresses, and spoken as a plenary speaker at conferences worldwide. His contributions have been recognized by Mexico's National System of Researchers (Level 2), a special mention in the 2013 AgroBio Award, and the 2014 Tecnos Award for contributions to biotechnology. He serves on expert panels focused on soil conservation and microbial inoculant development and currently acts as Associate Editor for several journals in the field.

• 1. IntroductionPart I. Microbial Ecology in Food Security2. Microbial Interactions iIn Agroecosystems3. Plant-Pathogen Interactions: Mechanisms Involved in Plant Diseases4. Biological Control Agents for Mitigating Plant Diseases5. Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria as a Sustainable Agricultural StrategyPart II. Development of Next-Generation Bacterial Inoculants6. Bioprospection of Beneficial Bacteria for Bioproducts Innovation in Agriculture7. Molecular and Biochemical Responses of Plants to Bacterial Inoculants8. Omics Approaches for Detecting Action Modes of Microbial Inoculants9. Polyphasic Taxonomic of Strains Contained in Bacterial Inoculants10. Bacterial Inoculants Production Systems11. Bioformulation of Bacterial Inoculants12. Performance Evaluation of Bacterial Inoculants in the FieldPart III. Present and Future Scenario13. The Role of Microbial Culture Collections in the Bioinoculants Development14. Legal Framework for the Development of Microbial Inoculants15. Perspectives and Challenges for Innovating Microbial Inoculants