They enhance plant growth by several direct and indirect mechanisms. Direct mechanisms include phosphate solubilization, nitrogen fixation, degradation of environmental pollutants and hormone production. Indirect mechanisms include controlling phytopathogens by competing for resources such as iron, amino acids and sugars, as well as by producing antibiotics or lytic enzymes.Competition for iron also serves as a strong selective force determining the microbial population in the rhizosphere. Several studies show that PGPR exert their plant growth-promoting activity by depriving native microflora of iron. Although iron is abundant in nature, the extremely low solubility of Fe3+ at pH 7 means that most organisms face the problem of obtaining enough iron from their environment. To fulfill their requirements for iron, bacteria have developed several strategies, including (i) the reduction of ferric to ferrous ions, (ii) the secretion of high-affinity iron-chelating compounds, called siderophores, and (iii) the uptake of heterologous siderophores. P. vortex's genome for example,harbors many genes which are employed in these strategies, in particular it has the potential to produce siderophores under iron limiting conditions.