Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the diversity of cultivable N2-fixing and P-solubilizing bacteria originated from 167 rhizospheric acidic soils samples of tea. Based on the fatty acid methyl ester profiles, 34 bacterial genera were identified with a similarity index of >0.3, but 69.2% of the identified isolates belonged to five genera: Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Paenibacillus, Stenotrophomonas and Arthrobacter. Among the 263 bacterial strains, 213 strains exhibited N2-fixing activity and 159 were efficient in phosphate solubilisation; 134 strains were efficient in N2-fixation and P-solubilisation. Most of the N2-fixing and P-solubilizing bacteria isolated were Gram-positive (59.3 and 52.8%), and Gram-negative constituted only 40.7 and 47.2%. A total of 102 dominant strains were characterized by carbon sources using BIOLOGM GN2 and GP2 plates. B. pumilus, B. subtilis, B. licheniformis, B. laevolacticus, P. fluorescens, P. putida, S. maltophilia and B. megaterium were the most frequent P-solubilizing and N2-fixing species in the tea rhizosphere soils. Utilization of high variety of C-sources by the N2-fixing and P-solubilizing acid tolerant strains may play an important role in adapting to a variety of crop plants, and thus potentially beneficial to the growth of tea plants in that specific acidic ecosystem.
Highlights
Soil and rhizosphere microbial communities in agro ecosystems may be affected by soil type and structure, soil pH, agro climatic conditions, plant species, plantmicroorganism interaction, land use, and management [1,2,3]
Selection of an efficient plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) requires an understanding of the composition and diversity of the root-associated bacteria, and characterization of its plant growth promotion (PGP)-related properties
Two hundred and sixty-three dominant, morphologically distinct rhizobacterial isolates from 391 colonies were purified, which belonged to 34 genera and 72 species
Summary
Soil and rhizosphere microbial communities in agro ecosystems may be affected by soil type and structure, soil pH, agro climatic conditions, plant species, plantmicroorganism interaction, land use, and management [1,2,3]. Bacteria are the most abundant organisms that reside in rhizosphere, and are called as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). They play an important role in plant growth by exerting various mechanisms such as biological nitrogen fixation, nutrient solubilisation, growth hormone and siderophore production, synergism with other bacteria–plant interactions, as well as increasing the availability of nutrients. Selection of an efficient PGPR requires an understanding of the composition and diversity of the root-associated bacteria, and characterization of its plant growth promotion (PGP)-related properties. For this reason, there has been considerable interest in examining the effect of soil type, plant species and root zone location on bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere
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