Abstract
Abstract Soil salinity is a major limiting factor for crop productivity, which increases continuously due to climate change. This barrier can possibly be overcome with the occurrence of halotolerant endophytic bacteria which reportedly plays an important role in protecting plants against various environmental stresses. Therefore, plant growth-promoting microbes are used in agriculture as an inexpensive and eco-friendly technology to enhance crop productivity in saline areas. In this study, the three isolates with nitrogen fixation ability were applied for mitigation of salt stress. The isolates were coded as C3A1, C8D2, and K10P4 and applied to rice plants by seed priming method. Furthermore, they were given as single innoculant or combined as a consortium compared to control, which was without the addition of endophytic bacteria, while the inoculated seed was planted on saline semisolid Fahraeus media at 4 dS m−1. The results showed that the single isolate of K10P4 endophytic bacteria increased the dry weight of rice plants, N uptake, and chlorophyll of plants in saline conditions. The combination of K10P4 isolate with C8D2 was synergistic and increased the population of endophytic bacteria in root tissue and chlorophyll content compared to the combination of C3A1 or three isolates. Meanwhile, the use of the 16S ribosomal RNA method on C3A1, C8D2, and K10P4 indentified the isolates as Ochrobactrum tritici (C3A1), Pseudomonas stutzeri (C8D2), and Pseudomonas stutzeri (K10P4).
Highlights
Agricultural land close to the coastal area is vulnerable to salinity stress [1] because salts from the sea enter the ground through tides and seawater intrusion
The three isolates of N-fixing endophytic bacteria were from the paddy plants in saline soils of two locations; two isolates were obtained from the root and leaf tissues of paddy plants from Cirebon, while that from leaf tissue of paddy plants were from Karawang
This is in line with a previous study that identified the plant roots with a higher population density of endophytic bacteria compared to other parts above the ground [25]
Summary
Agricultural land close to the coastal area is vulnerable to salinity stress [1] because salts from the sea enter the ground through tides and seawater intrusion. Land irrigation that uses salt-contaminated water for a long period can accumulate NaCl in the soil and damage crops [4], which affects crop growth and productivity worldwide [5]. The provinces of East, Central, West Java and Banten are the four provinces in north coast of Java with the coastal length of 1,316 km. These areas usually experience decline in rice production during the dry season. In 2017, seawater intrusion hit around 540,000 ha of rice fields during the dry season and the rice yields decreased by an average of 0.65 t ha−1 compared to the rainy season [8]
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