Recent advances in endophyte-mediated biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in plants

The review discusses endophyte-mediated tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses, molecular-omics signalling insights, and a bibliometric overview. This emphasis is on endophytes as sustainable tools for improving crop resilience. Plant-endophyte associations offer a promising, sustainable strategy to improve crop resilience against a range of biotic and abiotic stresses. Modern agriculture faces significant yield losses due to pathogenic microbes, insect pests, weeds, drought, salinity, extreme temperature, and heavy metal contamination. These challenges are further intensified by climate change and overreliance on chemical agroinputs. Endophytes are diverse communities of bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes that live within plant tissues. These endophytes develop mutualistic interactions that strengthen plant growth, physiology, and defense. These microorganisms promote nutrient acquisition, modulate phytohormone production, enhance photosynthesis, and encourage strong root development. Endophytes provide effective protection against pathogens and herbivores by inducing systemic resistance, biosynthesizing antimicrobial compounds, and modulating stress-responsive pathways. They mitigate abiotic stress by improving water-use efficiency, maintaining ionic balance, increasing antioxidant activity, and protecting plants against drought, temperature fluctuations, salinity, heavy metal toxicity, and flooding. This review summarizes recent advances in the functional roles of bacterial, fungal, and actinomycete endophytes, emphasizing their multifaceted contributions to plant stress tolerance. It further examines molecular and omics-driven findings that reveal complex plant-endophyte signaling networks and metabolic reprogramming. A bibliometric analysis indicates a rapid global interest in endophyte-based sustainable agriculture. Despite the substantial potential of endophytes, challenges persist regarding strain specificity, inconsistent field performance, ecological compatibility, and commercialization. To address these challenges, integrated omics tools, optimized microbial formulations, and precise farming techniques will be essential. Utilization of plant-endophyte synergy offers a practical, eco-friendly solution toward resilient crop production and long-term agricultural sustainability.