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Siderophore-producing bacteria mitigate cobalt stress in black gram (Vigna mungo L.), and the mitigation strategies are associated with iron concentration

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Abstract

Cobalt (Co) is considered an essential element in agriculture as it is an important constituent of vitamin B12. Due to natural and anthropogenic factors, heavy metals, especially Co, accumulate in agricultural fields, but their high exposure produces ramifications in crop plants, thereby reducing crop yield and biomass. Excessive Co in plants causes oxidative stress, and as the stress progresses, Co competes with iron (Fe) thereby decreasing chlorophyll content and resulting in Fe deficiency in plants. A major concern is to counter the Co toxicity. Therefore, the current study aimed to mitigate Co-stress or Co-toxicity by using siderophore producing microbes and simultaneously mobilize Co and iron (Fe) in required amounts. In this study, 250 bacteria were isolated from agricultural and non-agricultural soils and screened for siderophore production. Initial siderophore screening revealed that 28.8% of the isolates produced siderophore. Subsequent screening for Co-tolerance showed that 16 isolates were tolerant to up to 20,000 ppm of Co and produced ACC deaminase, siderophore (96.82–99.67%), indole-3-acetic acid (15.15–70.55 µg/mL) and phosphate solubilisation (39.33–142.67 µg/mL). A plate assay (200 mM Co stress) revealed that four isolates (KSBTS 12, SBTS 12, CWTS 5 and CWTS 10) enhanced the growth of black gram (Vigna mungo L.). Furthermore, evaluation in pot studies (2000 ppm Co stress) revealed enhanced root (60.69–174.24%) and shoot length (3.27–143.96%) compared to the control. Inoculated plants also enhanced the uptake of nitrogen (37.33–42.36 mg/g) and phosphorous (3.12–3.92 mg/g), chlorophyll content (7.60–22.97 mg/g), siderophore quantity in the soils (282.41–331.53%) and the soil respiration activity such as hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate (11.33–24.88 µg/g), dehydrogenase enzyme (109.76–197.26 µg/g) and alkaline phosphatase (631.53–918.20 µg/g). In conclusion, CWTS 5 (Bacillus subtilis) and CWTS 10 (Bacillus albus) can be used to mitigate Co-stress and mobilize Co and Fe in plants.

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Data availability

On request, the data presented in this study is available from the authors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Navsari Agricultural University (NAU) for analysing the physicochemical parameters of the soil samples. The authors would also like to thank the Soil Testing Laboratory, Dang, Gujarat, for analysing N, P, Fe and Co from the plant samples.

Funding

This work was supported by a Ph.D. fellowship granted by the Scheme of Developing High Quality Research (SHODH) of the Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat to SC.

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  1. C.G. Bhakta Institute of Biotechnology, Uka Tarsadia University, Bardoli, Surat, 394 350, Gujarat, India

    Sapna Chandwani & Natarajan Amaresan

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  1. Sapna Chandwani
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  2. Natarajan Amaresan
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NA: designed the study and edited final manuscript; SC: performed the experiments, data analysis and drafting initial manuscript.

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Correspondence to Natarajan Amaresan.

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Chandwani, S., Amaresan, N. Siderophore-producing bacteria mitigate cobalt stress in black gram (Vigna mungo L.), and the mitigation strategies are associated with iron concentration. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 123556–123569 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31106-2

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