Logo image
Back
Halotolerant marine Rhizosphere-Competent actinobacteria promote salicornia bigelovii growth and seed production using seawater irrigation
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Halotolerant marine Rhizosphere-Competent actinobacteria promote salicornia bigelovii growth and seed production using seawater irrigation

B.T. Mathew, Y. Torky, A. Amin, A-H.I. Mourad, M.M. Ayyash, A. El-Keblawy, A. Hilal-Alnaqbi, S.F. AbuQamar and K.A. El-Tarabily
Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol.11, Art. 552
2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00552
pdf
actinobacteria.pdfDownloadView
Published (Version of Record) Open Access
url
Free to Read *No subscription requiredView

Abstract

Salicornia bigelovii is a promising halophytic cash crop that grows in seawater of the intertidal zone of the west-north coast of the UAE. This study assess plant growth promoting (PGP) capabilities of halotolerant actinobacteria isolated from rhizosphere of S. bigelovii to be used as biological inoculants on seawater-irrigated S. bigelovii plants. Under laboratory conditions, a total of 39 actinobacterial strains were isolated, of which 22 were tolerant to high salinity (up to 8% w/v NaCl). These strains were further screened for their abilities to colonize S. bigelovii roots in vitro; the most promising ones that produced indole-3-acetic acid, polyamines (PA) or 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase (ACCD) were selected for rhizosphere-competency under naturally competitive environment. Three outstanding rhizosphere-competent isolates, Streptomyces chartreusis (Sc), S. tritolerans (St), and S. rochei (Sr) producing auxins, PA and ACCD, respectively, were investigated individually and as consortium (Sc/St/Sr) to determine their effects on the performance of S. bigelovii in the greenhouse. Individual applications of strains on seawater-irrigated plants significantly enhanced shoot and root dry biomass by 32.3–56.5% and 42.3–71.9%, respectively, in comparison to non-inoculated plants (control). In addition, plants individually treated with Sc, St and Sr resulted in 46.1, 60.0, and 69.1% increase in seed yield, respectively, when compared to control plants. Thus, the synergetic combination of strains had greater effects on S. bigelovii biomass (62.2 and 77.9% increase in shoot and root dry biomass, respectively) and seed yield (79.7% increase), compared to the control treatment. Our results also showed significant (P < 0.05) increases in the levels of photosynthetic pigments, endogenous auxins and PA, but a reduction in the levels of ACC in tissues of plants inoculated with Sc/St/Sr. We conclude that the consortium of isolates was the most effective treatment on S. bigelovii growth; thus confirmed by principal component and correlation analyses. To this best of our knowledge, this is the first report about halotolerant rhizosphere-competent PGP actinobacteria thriving in saline soils that can potentially contribute to promoting growth and increasing yield of S. bigelovii. These halotolerant actinobacterial strains could potentially be exploited as biofertilizers to sustain crop production in arid coastal areas.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#2 Zero Hunger

Source: InCites

Metrics

133 File views/ downloads
40 Record Views
64 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.97 Plant Pathology
3.97.556 Microbial Biocontrol
Web Of Science research areas
Microbiology
ESI research areas
Microbiology
Logo image