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Bacteria able to control foot and root rot and to promote growth of cucumber in salinated soils

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Abstract

The aim of the present work was to test known bacterial plant growth-promoting strains for their ability to promote cucumber plant growth in salinated soil and to improve cucumber fruit yield by protecting these plants against soil-borne pathogens. Fifty-two plant-beneficial bacterial strains were evaluated for their ability to protect plants against cucumber foot and root rot after bacterization of the seeds and infestation of salinated soil with the isolated Fusarium solani pathogen. Based on the results of initial screenings, five efficient strains were selected, namely Serratia plymuthica RR-2-5-10, Stenotrophomonas rhizophila e-p10, Pseudomonas fluorescens SPB2145, Pseudomonas extremorientalis TSAU20, and P. fluorescens PCL1751. All five strains are salt tolerant since they grow well in a medium to which 3% NaCl was added. Infestation of the soil with F. solani resulted in an increase of the percentage of diseased plants from 17 to 54. Priming of seedlings with the five selected bacterial strains reduced this proportion to as low as 10%. In addition, in the absence of an added pathogen, all five strains showed a significant stimulatory effect on cucumber plant growth, increasing the dry weight of whole cucumber plants up to 62% in comparison to the non-bacterized control. The strains also increased cucumber fruit yield in greenhouse varying from 9% to 32%. We conclude that seed priming with the selected microbes is a very promising approach for improving horticulture in salinated soils. Moreover, allochthonous strains isolated from non-salinated soil, from a moderate or even cold climate, and from other plants than cucumber, functioned as well as autochthonous strains as cucumber-beneficial bacteria in salinated Uzbek soils. These results show that these plant-beneficial strains are robust and they strongly suggest they can also be used successfully in case the climate gets warmer and the soils will become more salinated. Finally, the mechanisms by which they may exert their plant-beneficial action are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by an INTAS Collaborative project grant with Uzbekistan 04-82-6969 (coordinator BL) and by a UNESCO—L’OREAL Fellowship for “Women in Science” to DE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Biology and Soil Sciences, National University of Uzbekistan, 100174, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

    Dilfuza Egamberdieva, Zulfiya Kucharova & Kakhramon Davranov

  2. Institute of Biology, Sylvius Laboratory, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Dilfuza Egamberdieva, Faina Kamilova, Shamil Z. Validov & Ben Lugtenberg

  3. Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Gabriele Berg

  4. All-Russian Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology (ARRIAM), Pushkin, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Natasha Makarova, Tatyana Azarova & Igor Tikhonovich

  5. Bisolvi Inter, Podbelsky Shosse, 3, Pushkin 8, 196608, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Vladimir Chebotar

  6. Koppert Biological Systems, Veilingweg 14, P.O. Box 155, 2650 AD, Berkel en Rodenrijs, The Netherlands

    Faina Kamilova

  7. Federal State Institution “Federal Centre of Toxicology Radiation and Biological Security”, Nauchnyj gorodok 2, 420075, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia

    Shamil Z. Validov

  8. Department of Biotechnology and Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, National University of Uzbekistan, Vuzgorodok, 100174, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

    Dilfuza Egamberdieva

Authors
  1. Dilfuza Egamberdieva
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  2. Zulfiya Kucharova
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  3. Kakhramon Davranov
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  4. Gabriele Berg
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  5. Natasha Makarova
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  6. Tatyana Azarova
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  7. Vladimir Chebotar
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  8. Igor Tikhonovich
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  9. Faina Kamilova
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  10. Shamil Z. Validov
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  11. Ben Lugtenberg
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Correspondence to Dilfuza Egamberdieva.

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Egamberdieva, D., Kucharova, Z., Davranov, K. et al. Bacteria able to control foot and root rot and to promote growth of cucumber in salinated soils. Biol Fertil Soils 47, 197–205 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-010-0523-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-010-0523-3

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