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Isolation of Plant Growth-Promoting Bacillus cereus from Soil and Its Use as a Microbial Inoculant

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Abstract

Modernization has introduced intensive agricultural practices wherein the pesticides play an important role both in stabilization and in increase of agricultural products. As a consequence, humans and members of other ecosystems are exposed to increased levels of compounds that have detrimental effects on their health, thereby signifying the importance of microbial inoculants. In order to achieve this goal 7 different bacterial species were initially screened for isolation of plant growth-promoting Bacillus sp. The isolate CUAMS116 was confirmed to be Bacillus cereus through biochemical and molecular characterization. The in vitro plant growth-promoting ability of the isolate was screened through standard tests. Different concentrations of bacterial inoculant (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) were evaluated for its plant growth promotion ability using Phaseolus vulgaris L., under pot culture conditions. At the harvest stage, the mature control plants measured 16.53 cm and mean treated plant height was measured to be 27.75 cm, showing a maximum percentage increase in length of 67.87%. The results suggested that the B. cereus CUAMS116 isolated in this study can be extended as a PGPM through further field trials in other plants for improving crop yield and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are indebted to the Department of Life Sciences, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, and the Department of Microbial Biotechnology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, for providing the necessary facilities to execute the planned research work. Authors also acknowledge Barcode Biosciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India, for providing 16S rRNA Sequencing facility.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Department of Life Sciences, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560029, India

    Ann Mary Sebastian & Mridul Umesh

  2. Department of Microbial Biotechnology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, 641105, India

    Kumaresan Priyanka & Kathirvel Preethi

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  1. Ann Mary Sebastian
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Sebastian, A.M., Umesh, M., Priyanka, K. et al. Isolation of Plant Growth-Promoting Bacillus cereus from Soil and Its Use as a Microbial Inoculant. Arab J Sci Eng 46, 151–161 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-020-04895-8

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