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Plant growth promoting bacteria from Crocus sativus rhizosphere

World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology volume 29, pages 2271–2279 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

Present study deals with the isolation of rhizobacteria and selection of plant growth promoting bacteria from Crocus sativus (Saffron) rhizosphere during its flowering period (October–November). Bacterial load was compared between rhizosphere and bulk soil by counting CFU/gm of roots and soil respectively, and was found to be ~40 times more in rhizosphere. In total 100 bacterial isolates were selected randomly from rhizosphere and bulk soil (50 each) and screened for in-vitro and in vivo plant growth promoting properties. The randomly isolated bacteria were identified by microscopy, biochemical tests and sequence homology of V1–V3 region of 16S rRNA gene. Polyphasic identification categorized Saffron rhizobacteria and bulk soil bacteria into sixteen different bacterial species with Bacillus aryabhattai (WRF5-rhizosphere; WBF3, WBF4A and WBF4B-bulk soil) common to both rhizosphere as well as bulk soil. Pseudomonas sp. in rhizosphere and Bacillus and Brevibacterium sp. in the bulk soil were the predominant genera respectively. The isolated rhizobacteria were screened for plant growth promotion activity like phosphate solubilization, siderophore and indole acetic acid production. 50 % produced siderophore and 33 % were able to solubilize phosphate whereas all the rhizobacterial isolates produced indole acetic acid. The six potential PGPR showing in vitro activities were used in pot trial to check their efficacy in vivo. These bacteria consortia demonstrated in vivo PGP activity and can be used as PGPR in Saffron as biofertilizers.This is the first report on the isolation of rhizobacteria from the Saffron rhizosphere, screening for plant growth promoting bacteria and their effect on the growth of Saffron plant.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to Prof. Michel Aragno, Honorary professor University of Neuchatel, Switzerland for his scientific advice. We are thankful to Mr Farooq Ahmad and Mr C.L. Bhat and, State agriculture Department J&K, India, for their help in sample collection and information about Saffron cultivation. SA is thankful to CSIR-UGC for Fellowship. We are also thankful to Department of Biotechnology for financial support under DBT funded project.

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  1. School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu, Jammu, 180 006, India

    Sheetal Ambardar & Jyoti Vakhlu

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  1. Sheetal Ambardar
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  2. Jyoti Vakhlu
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Correspondence to Jyoti Vakhlu.

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Ambardar, S., Vakhlu, J. Plant growth promoting bacteria from Crocus sativus rhizosphere. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 29, 2271–2279 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-013-1393-2

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Keywords

  • Rhizosphere
  • Saffron
  • Bulk soil
  • Pseudomonas
  • PGPR