Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) Helps in Enhancing the Salt Tolerance in Wheat and Tomato Crops Under Saline Conditions
2023
Madhu Choudhary | Awtar Singh | Gajender Yadav | T. Damodaran | MD Meena | Vineeth | PK Joshi
Microorganisms could play a significant role in salt stress mitigation under aquatic and non-aquatic systems. Therefore, the unique properties of microorganisms could be explored to induce tolerance in to plants under saline conditions for better plant growth and development. In this study, plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) were isolated from representative salt- affected sites (ECe 10-43 dS m-1) and screened for their tolerance. The seeds of wheat and plantlets of tomato were treated with PGPB and evaluated for plant growth activities in crop under pot experiment. Results showed higher root and shoot lengths of wheat in treated plants of both salt sensitive (HD2009) and salt tolerant (KRL210) varieties compared to control. The Na+/K+ ratio was lower in the shoot of HD2009 but KRL210 did not shown any observable effects. The tomato crop showed higher number of fruits per plant and fruit yield with increasing levels of salinity (ECe 2, 4, 6, and 8 dS m-1) under PGPB consortia treated pots. Soil biological properties (bacterial population and dehydrogenase activity) were improved under treated pots compared to control. This study showed that salt tolerant PGPB improves the growth of wheat and tomato crops by maintaining the Na+/K+ ratio as a survival strategy under saline conditions.
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