Promotion of maize growth using endophytic bacteria under greenhouse and field conditions

Abstract

The effect of Bacillus subtilis isolates before being used as inoculants is very important. They present various impacts on promotion and characteristics of plant at different stages of growth. This experiment was carried out on maize under greenhouse conditions with eleven treatments of endophytic bacteria and three repetitions. The better isolates under greenhouse conditions were used in the field experiment with four best treatments and six replicates. The traits evaluated under both conditions were height, shoot and root dry matter, and the nitrogen and phosphorus content in the plant and soil and the total number of bacteria in the soil. Under greenhouse conditions, the groups that received Bacillus spp. showed higher amount of soluble phosphorus and total numbers of bacteria compared to control. Under field condition, isolate BS-290 increased the nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in shoot dry matter, phosphorus concentration in dry soil and the total number of bacteria in the soil, compared to the control. Isolate BS-320 increased the phosphorus concentration in plants and maize yield, which strongly suggests its use as a biological inoculant for maize crops. BS-248, BS 290 and BS-320 isolates promoted the highest maize growth, compared to the other isolates. The results showed that Bacillus subtilis isolates that promote plant growth did not increase similar traits in all plants and the behavior has been highly isolate-dependent. This finding shows that the isolates had a preference and certain specificity on each individual trait.

Bacillus velezensis 83 a bacterial strain from mango phyllosphere, useful for biological control and plant growth promotion

“…velezensis 83 as plant growth-promoting bacteria had a different effect on the growth of the maize seedlings development depending on the phenological state of the maize, application to root seedling promoted the root development, in contrast application in seed state promoted the shoot development. Traits as phosphate solubilization, auxin and VOC (as 2,3-butanediol and acetoin) production by B. velezensis 83 could be involved in the growth promotion of maize as has been reported for other strains (Bentes et al 2019;Cui et al 2019). Plant hormone homeostasis is affected by PGPR production of auxins, ethylene, gibberellins, abscisic acid, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and different effects are observed on shoot or root system, being auxin the main hormone which regulates the plant growth and development (Tsukanova et al 2017).…”

The occurrence of rhizobacteria from Paspalum genotypes and their effects on plant growth

“…Pojuca. Lobo et al (2019) found a similar result during the inoculation of Bacillus subtilis strain BS-263 in maize plants, although the strain also produced indolic compounds in vitro.…”

Growth-Promoting Potential of Rhizobacteria Isolated From Sugarcane

“…This result suggests that the capacity for interaction with the plant is more important than the bacterial amount. Lobo et al (2019) reported that some B. subtilis strains showed high amounts in the rhizosphere and did not promote plant growth, whereas other strains showed low amounts and promoted plant growth.…”