Abstract
Water scarcity is abiotic stress that is becoming more prevalent as a result of human activities, posing a threat to agriculture and food security. Recently, endophytic bacteria have been proven to reduce drought stress and increase crop productivity. Here, we explored the efficacy of seed endophytic bacteria in maize crops under water deficit conditions. For this purpose, twenty-seven endophytic bacteria have been isolated from three distinct maize cultivars seeds (Malka 2016, Sahiwal Gold and Gohar-19) and evaluated for desiccation tolerance of −0.18, −0.491, and −1.025 MPa induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000. The nine isolates were chosen on the basis of desiccation tolerance and evaluated for maize growth promotion and antioxidant activity under normal and drought conditions. Results showed that drought stress significantly decreased the growth of maize seedlings. However, isolates SM1, SM4, SM19, and SM23 significantly improved the root and shoot length, plant biomass, leaf area, proline content, sugar, and protein content under normal and drought conditions. Antioxidant enzymes were significantly decreased at p-value < 0.05 with inoculation of seed endophytic bacteria under drought conditions. However, further experiments of seed endophytic bacteria (SM1, SM4, SM19, and SM23) should be conducted to validate results.
Highlights
Plants are continuously confronted with a series of abiotic stresses associated with changing climate that can adversely affect plant productivity
All bacterial isolates were streaked on Luria Bertini (LB) agar plates and tested for drought tolerance ability
This study investigated the potential benefits of seed endophytic bacterial isolates from maize seeds
Summary
Plants are continuously confronted with a series of abiotic stresses associated with changing climate that can adversely affect plant productivity. Drought is one of the most damaging abiotic stresses in agricultural production, threatening global food security [1,2]. It is predicted that if this situation persists, 30% of water resources will decline and drought areas will be expected to double by 2050 [3,4,5]. Literature indicates frequent hot droughts in arid and semi-arid regions which will influence agricultural productivity [6,7]. Drought can cause considerable changes in soil properties, limit nutrient mobility, and decrease microbial decomposition processes in soil [8,9]. Drought plants suffer from low efficiency of water and nutrient absorption, hormonal imbalance, accumulation of Reactive oxygen species (ROS), and reduced photosynthesis [10]. Published research from 1980 to 2015 has shown that drought stresses have generally accounted for up to a 21%
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