Abstract
The exploration of rhizospheric microbial flora for crop yield enhancement is well established. Rhizospheric microbes influence the plant physiology by imparting several beneficial effects, namely, Nitrogen fixation, increased nutrient uptake, and secondary metabolites production on their host plants. The present study investigates the response ofBacillus megateriumATCC No. 13525,Pseudomonas fluorescensATCC No. 14581, andTrichoderma virideMTCC No. 167 in alone and combined treatments for their effect on growth and yield parameters in a commercially importantOcimum tenuiflorumL. cv. CIM-Ayu. The plant is therapeutically important for its essential oil constituents, namely, eugenol,β-caryophyllene, and various monoterpenes. The combination treatments, T7 (B. megaterium+P. fluorescens) and T8 (B. megaterium+P. fluorescens+T. viride), showed maximum enhancement (27.27%) of percentage essential oil as compared to untreated control. Nutrient uptake especially N2content was significantly increased (43%) with the treatment T8 (B. megaterium+P. fluorescens+T. viride). Amongst major essential oil constituents, eugenol content was maximally increased by 58.5% as compared to 42.9% (control) indicating a cumulative role of microbial inoculants for crop yield boost-up.
Highlights
The members of genus Ocimum (Gk. ozo = smell) from family Lamiaceae are medicinally important plants owing to their therapeutic potentials as antiseptics, antioxidants, antistressors, antipyretics, antimicrobials, and insecticidal [1]
Rhizospheric microbial wealth is widely acclaimed in agricultural practices for enhancement of crop yield attributes as they share their environment with the host plants and exhibit better adaptation [8]
The results reveal that the microbial treatments enhanced the growth parameters in O. tenuiflorum and significantly modulated aromatic oil’s quality
Summary
Rhizospheric microorganisms are recognized as an economic and sustainable input for increasing the productivity of several agricultural, horticultural, forestry, and medicinal crops [3,4,5] Numerous microbes such as Pseudomonas, Azospirillum, Azotobacter, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Alcaligenes, Arthrobacter, Burkholderia, Bacillus, and Serratia have been reported to enhance the plant growth [6, 7]. Rhizospheric microbes play significant role/s in improving the growth and yield of host plant [9] by imparting several beneficial effects, namely, N2 fixation, increased nutrient uptake, siderophores, and secondary metabolite/s production [8, 10] This interest is linked to environmental concerns for reduced use of chemicals as well as an appreciation for utilization of biological and organics in agriculture
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