Abstract
Plant growth promoting rhizobacterias (PGPRs) are free living soil bacteria that colonize root surfaces and have the capacity to enhance plant growth directly or indirectly. A total of 23 bacterial strains were isolated from saffron rhizoshere soil during the flowering stage of corms. All these isolates were screened for their plant growth promoting traits like production of IAA, phosphate solubilisation activity and siderophore production. The maximum percentage of the bacterial isolates was of Gram negative rod shaped type. A total of six isolates were capable of showing one or more than one of the activities like IAA production, Siderphore production and phosphate solubilisation activity. The Bacillus subtilis showed highest IAA production of 360 µg/ml while as Pseudomonas ssp., was found to be highly efficient in terms of phosphate solubilisation production (460 µg/ml) and siderophore production (62%). It was concluded from the results that these rhizobacterial strains isolated could be a promising source for plant growth promoting agent in increasing the growth of cormlets vis a vis enhancing the yield of saffron. Key words: IAA, PGPR, phosphate solubilisation, rhizosphere, siderophore, saffron.
Highlights
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) representing about (2 to 5%) of total rhizobacterial community defined as the indispensable part of rhizosphere biota that when grown in association with the host plants can stimulate the growth of the host (Vessey, 2003)
PGPR colonize roots of plant and promote plant growth and development through a variety of mechanisms such as production of phytohormones, suppression of deleterious organisms, activation of phosphate solubilization and promotion of the mineral nutrient uptake are usually believed to be involved in plant growth promotion (Glick, 1995; Lalande et al, 1989)
There are many papers related to the advantages and screening of PGPR from crop plants but as such no information about screening and using PGPR for saffron corm development is available in our country; Sharaf-Eldin et al (2008) studied the effect of Bacillus subtilis FZB24 on saffron (Crocus sativus L.) corms under ex-vitro conditions in Eygpt and reported that inoculation of B. subtilis FZB24 significantly increased leaf length, flowers per corm, weight of the first flower stigma, total stigma biomass and significantly decreased the time required for corms to sprout and the number of shoots
Summary
Screening of beneficial properties of rhizobacteria isolated from Saffron (Crocus sativus L) rhizosphere. Plant growth promoting rhizobacterias (PGPRs) are free living soil bacteria that colonize root surfaces and have the capacity to enhance plant growth directly or indirectly. A total of 23 bacterial strains were isolated from saffron rhizoshere soil during the flowering stage of corms. All these isolates were screened for their plant growth promoting traits like production of IAA, phosphate solubilisation activity and siderophore production. A total of six isolates were capable of showing one or more than one of the activities like IAA production, Siderphore production and phosphate solubilisation activity. It was concluded from the results that these rhizobacterial strains isolated could be a promising source for plant growth promoting agent in increasing the growth of cormlets vis a vis enhancing the yield of saffron
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