Screening for crop response to Diazotrophic bacteria isolated from potato rhizosphere

Microbe-plant interactions in the rhizosphere can be beneficial, neutral, or deleterious for plant growth. The present study aimed to characterize eight diazotrophic bacteria isolated from potato rhizosphere and to evaluate their effects on potato growth responses. Initially, soil bacterial isolates...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A.P. Henagamage, G. Seneviratne, C. Abayasekera, K. M. S. Kodikara
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 2016-11-01
Series:Ceylon Journal of Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cjs.sljol.info/articles/7401
Description
Summary:Microbe-plant interactions in the rhizosphere can be beneficial, neutral, or deleterious for plant growth. The present study aimed to characterize eight diazotrophic bacteria isolated from potato rhizosphere and to evaluate their effects on potato growth responses. Initially, soil bacterial isolates were screened for <em>in vitro</em> pH, nitrogenase activity, <em>in vitro</em> IAA production and seedling vigor. Then, they were further evaluated for their effects on growth responses of potato seed tubers using a pot experiment under greenhouse conditions. Out of the bacterial isolates, <em>Bacillus</em> sp., <em>Acidomonas</em> sp., <em>Serratia</em> sp. and <em>Bradyrhizobium</em> sp. responded positively to all screening and greenhouse experiments. The highest nitrogenase activity, IAA production, seedling vigor and the lowest medium pH were shown by <em>Bradyrhizobium </em>sp. (P &lt; 0.05). Further, inoculation of potato with <em>Bradyrhizobium </em>sp. produced the highest tuber weight, tuber number and stolon number. Inoculum pH was inversely proportional to the production of IAA. Further, tuber weight and tuber number were increased with the reduction of soil pH. Positive relationships were observed between IAA production with seedling vigor, tuber weight, and tuber number, separately. Out of the bacterial isolates, <em>Bradyrhizobium </em>sp. was found to be the best since it showed the highest performance in all screening and pot experiments.
ISSN:2513-2814
2513-230X