Abstract
Despite soil having an abundance of iron (Fe), it is unavailable for proper plant growth and development. One of the mechanisms plants use to deal with iron deficiency is the uptake of iron by chelating phytosiderophores. Pseudomonas fluorescence can produce pyoverdine-type siderophore and has potential application in agriculture as an iron chelator. Therefore, bacterial isolates collected from different areas of district Faisalabad were screened for their fluorescent, siderophore production and indole acetic acid equivalents. After selecting efficient strains from a screening test, they were evaluated for improving wheat and maize production under field conditions. The results showed that out of 15 isolates, 7 were found to have significant plant-beneficial microbial traits. Efficient strains promoted grain yield by 24.2% and 20.2%, plant height by 30.9% and 23.7%, total grain weight by 25.3% and 13.4% over control in wheat and maize, respectively. Similarly, significant improvements in the number of grains per cob/spike were also observed. Analyses of grain iron contents depicted 67% increase as compared to control in for maize. Therefore, based on the results, it is concluded that bio-fortification of cereal crops through fluorescent producing siderophoric microbes is an effective strategy favorable for plant growth and development through nutrient solubilization/mobilization.
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