Abstract
Drought stress is one of the most fatal environmental phenomena that affect plant growth and productivity worldwide. In the present study, an attempt was made to screen and characterize nitrogen fixing bacteria for drought tolerance by inoculation in trypticase soy broth with different concentrations of PEG 6000. The strains were further evaluated for induction of drought tolerance and growth promotion in tomato. It was found that inoculation improved the plant physiological parameters of tomato seedlings. Furthermore, plants inoculated with nitrogen fixers viz., Microbacterium, Cellulosimicrobium and Paenibacillus showed better growth in terms of plant height, number of leaves, stem girth, root length, fresh and dry weight of plants and yield compared to uninoculated control plants under normal and reduced irrigation. The study demonstrates nitrogen fixers with plant growth promoting traits and drought tolerance can be a useful approach for the development of bioinoculants for drought stress management in crops.
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