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Endophytic Microbes from Diverse Wheat Genotypes and Their Potential Biotechnological Applications in Plant Growth Promotion and Nutrient Uptake

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Endophytic microbes residing inside the tissues of plants play a significant role to enhance the growth and health of plants by different plant growth-promoting mechanisms. In the present investigation, N2-fixing endophytic bacteria were isolated and characterized by plant growth. A total of one hundred fifty-nine endophytic bacteria were isolated from surface-sterilized roots and stem of different genotypes of wheat growing in the Divine Valley of Baru Sahib, Himachal Pradesh. The isolated bacterial endophytes were screened in vitro for plant growth-promoting attributes. Out of one hundred fifty-nine, thirteen endophytic bacteria were selected based on multifarious plant growth-promoting attributes. Among plant growth-promoting activities, hydrogen cyanide producers (19%) were higher when compared to siderophores producers (16%) and P-solubilizers (16%), ammonia producers (14%), K-solubilizers (14%), IAA producers (12%), Zn-solubilizers (5%), N2-fixers (2%) and biocontrol (2%). One of the isolates EU-B2RT.R1 demonstrated that a significant level of nitrogenase activity, P-solubilization and IAA production was identified as Acinetobacter guillouiae EU-B2RT.R1 based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and BLAST analysis. Acinetobacter guillouiae EU-B2RT.R1, exhibiting multifarious beneficial traits, is further evaluated for plant growth promotion of wheat cultivar PBW 343+Lr24+GPC in pot experiment under greenhouse conditions. The Acinetobacter guillouiae EU-B2RT.R1 with multifarious plant growth-promoting activity has emerged as one of the efficient biofertilizers that need to be explored for sustainable agriculture.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Department of Biotechnology, Dr. Khem Singh Gill Akal College of Agriculture, Eternal University, Baru Sahib and Department of Environment, Science & Technology (DEST), Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India funded project “Development of Microbial Consortium as Bio-inoculants for Drought and Low Temperature Growing Crops for Organic Farming in Himachal Pradesh” for providing the facilities and financial support, to undertake the investigations.

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  1. Kusam Lata Rana and Divjot Kour contributed equally to the present work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Dr. Khem Singh Gill Akal College of Agriculture, Eternal University, Baru Sahib, Sirmour, 173101, India

    Kusam Lata Rana, Divjot Kour, Tanvir Kaur, Imran Sheikh, Ajar Nath Yadav & Harcharan Singh Dhaliwal

  2. Quality Analysis Lab, Forage Section, College of Agriculture, CCS, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, 125004, India

    Vinod Kumar

  3. Division of Microbiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Archna Suman

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  1. Kusam Lata Rana
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Correspondence to Ajar Nath Yadav.

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Significance Statement

The significance of present work is the isolation of nitrogen-fixing endophytic bacterium isolated from wheat, having huge potential role in plant growth promotion under in vitro condition and in future can be developed as nitrogen biofertilizers.

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Rana, K.L., Kour, D., Kaur, T. et al. Endophytic Microbes from Diverse Wheat Genotypes and Their Potential Biotechnological Applications in Plant Growth Promotion and Nutrient Uptake. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. 90, 969–979 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-020-01168-0

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