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Bacterial endophyte Sphingomonas sp. LK11 produces gibberellins and IAA and promotes tomato plant growth

  • Microbial Pathogenesis and Host-Microbe Interaction
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Abstract

Plant growth promoting endophytic bacteria have been identified as potential growth regulators of crops. Endophytic bacterium, Sphingomonas sp. LK11, was isolated from the leaves of Tephrosia apollinea. The pure culture of Sphingomonas sp. LK11 was subjected to advance chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques to extract and isolate gibberellins (GAs). Deuterated standards of [17, 17-2H2]-GA4, [17, 17-2H2]-GA9 and [17, 17-2H2]-GA20 were used to quantify the bacterial GAs. The analysis of the culture broth of Sphingomonas sp. LK11 revealed the existence of physiologically active gibberellins (GA4: 2.97 ± 0.11 ng/ml) and inactive GA9 (0.98 ± 0.15 ng/ml) and GA20 (2.41 ± 0.23). The endophyte also produced indole acetic acid (11.23 ± 0.93 μM/ml). Tomato plants inoculated with endophytic Sphingomonas sp. LK11 showed significantly increased growth attributes (shoot length, chlorophyll contents, shoot, and root dry weights) compared to the control. This indicated that such phyto-hormones-producing strains could help in increasing crop growth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, University of Nizwa, Nizwa, Oman

    Abdul Latif Khan, Ahmed Al-Harrasi, Javid Hussain, Ahmed Al-Rawahi, Salima Al-Khiziri & Liaqat Ali

  2. School of Applied Biosciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701, Republic of Korea

    Muhammad Waqas, Sang-Mo Kang, Ihsan Ullah, Hee-Young Jung & In-Jung Lee

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  1. Abdul Latif Khan
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  2. Muhammad Waqas
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Correspondence to Ahmed Al-Harrasi or In-Jung Lee.

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Khan, A.L., Waqas, M., Kang, SM. et al. Bacterial endophyte Sphingomonas sp. LK11 produces gibberellins and IAA and promotes tomato plant growth. J Microbiol. 52, 689–695 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-014-4002-7

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