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Bacteria in Combination With Fertilizers Promote Root and Shoot Growth of Maize in Saline-Sodic Soil
Bacteria in Combination With Fertilizers Promote Root and Shoot Growth of Maize in Saline-Sodic Soil
ISSN 1678-4405
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1517-838220131135
Research Paper
Bacteria in combination with fertilizers promote root and shoot growth of maize
in saline-sodic soil
Muhammad Zafar-ul-Hye1, Hafiz Muhammad Farooq1, Mubshar Hussain2
1
Abstract
Salinity is the leading abiotic stress hampering maize (Zea mays L.) growth throughout the world, especially in Pakistan. During salinity stress, the endogenous ethylene level in plants increases, which
retards proper root growth and consequent shoot growth of the plants. However, certain bacteria contain the enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase, which converts 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (an immediate precursor of ethylene biosynthesis in higher plants)
into ammonia and a-ketobutyrate instead of ethylene. In the present study, two Pseudomonas bacterial strains containing ACC-deaminase were tested separately and in combinations with mineral fertilizers to determine their potential to minimize/undo the effects of salinity on maize plants grown
under saline-sodic field conditions. The data recorded at 30, 50 and 70 days after sowing revealed that
both the Pseudomonas bacterial strains improved root and shoot length, root and shoot fresh weight,
and root and shoot dry weight up to 34, 43, 35, 71, 55 and 68%, respectively, when applied without
chemical fertilizers: these parameter were enhanced up to 108, 95, 100, 131, 100 and 198%, respectively, when the strains were applied along with chemical fertilizers. It can be concluded that
ACC-deaminase Pseudomonas bacterial strains applied alone and in conjunction with mineral fertilizers improved the root and shoot growth of maize seedlings grown in saline-sodic soil.
Key words: maize, ACC-deaminase, rhizobacteria, salinity.
Introduction
Novelty statement: Bacterial strains with ACC-deaminase activity improved the root and shoot growth of
maize seedlings grown under saline-sodic field conditions
at 30, 50 and 70 days after sowing when applied alone, and
further improvement was achieved when these strains were
applied with mineral fertilizers.
Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important cereal crop
grown throughout the world (Araus et al., 2002). It is a high
yielding crop with significant commercial and industrial
importance, as a large number of products are produced
from its grains (Chaudhary et al., 1997). Maize is a raw material for the preparation of corn starch, corn oil, dextrose,
corn syrup, corn flakes, cosmetics, wax, alcohol and tanning material for the leather industry (Mujtaba, 2000). In
developed countries, approximately 90% of maize is being
Send correspondence to M. Zafar-ul-Hye. Department of Soil Science, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. E-mail: zafarulhyegondal@yahoo.com.
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Zafar-ul-Hye et al.
Results
After 30 days of sowing, the data revealed that the
ACC-deaminase-containing rhizobacterial strains significantly improved the root and shoot growth of maize plants
grown on saline-sodic soil. Moreover, a further significant
improvement in root and shoot growth was achieved from
the data, when the same bacterial strains were applied in
combination with the full recommended dose of NPK fertilizer (Table 1). Without chemical fertilizers, the bacterial
strains increased the root length, shoot length, fresh root
weight, fresh shoot weight, dry root weight and dry shoot
weight up to 26, 16, 35, 71, 35 and 68%, respectively, compared to the control. The maximum increases over the control in root length (85%), fresh shoot weight (131%) and
dry shoot weight (198%) were observed as a result of the
application of strain 1 coupled with the full recommended
dose of NPK fertilizer. The maximum increases compared
99
Discussion
Stress conditions are known to suppress the plant
growth (Cuartero and Fernandez-Munoz, 1999). Increasing
stress has been reported to reduce plant growth. However,
when plants are treated with PGPR containing ACCdeaminase, the extent of growth suppression was decreased
and the plants treated with bateria showed increased root
and shoot growth as well as greater root and shoot fresh and
dry weights compared with untreated plants. It is likely that
bacteria with ACC-deaminase activity might have reduced
100
Zafar-ul-Hye et al.
Table 1 - Combined effect of ACC-deaminase producing bacteria and mineral fertilizers on root and shoot growth of 30-, 50- and 70-day-old maize plants
in saline-sodic soil.
Treatment
Fresh root
weight (g)
Fresh shoot
weight (g)
Dry root
weight (g)
Dry shoot
weight (g)
13.42 f
26.47 f
0.51 e
3.51 e
0.17 f
0.90 e
1.50 cd
21.10 bc
35.87 a-c
0.84 bc
6.65 bc
0.26 cd
15.55 ef
28.70 ef
0.66 d
4.56 de
0.23 de
1.16 de
16.85 de
30.65 de
0.69 d
5.99 cd
0.21 e
1.51 cd
19. 40 cd
33.00 cd
0.80 c
4.68 de
0.24 d
1.43 d
20.00 bcd
35.17 bc
0.88 b
7.55 bc
0.28 bc
1.90 bc
24.82 a
38.50 ab
0.85 bc
9.44 a
0.29 b
2.68 a
22.70 ab
39.25 a
1.02 a
8.10 ab
0.34 a
2.02 b
3.20
3.75
0.07
1.57
0.03
0.41
18.67 e
44.25 f
4.26 f
18.01 d
1.56 f
5.34 d
29.50 bc
64.15 cd
6.60 cd
30.77 a-c
2.46 c
8.79 a-c
23.52 d
51.70 e
5.66 de
25.09 b-d
1.92 ef
7.38 cd
21.60 de
60.90 d
5.23 ef
23.45 cd
2.42 cd
6.89 cd
LSD Value
50 DAS
Control
-1
-1
28.05 c
66.50 c
6.68 c
27.87 bc
2.08 de
8.22 bc
27.92 c
69.25 bc
7.04 bc
28.98 a-c
2.58 bc
8.03 bc
31.70 ab
73.57 b
7.77 ab
32.85 ab
2.85 ab
9.66 ab
34.67 a
79.82 a
8.39 a
36.05 a
3.09 a
10.60 a
3.02
5.50
0.99
7.92
0.36
2.05
27.35 e
66.36 f
13.97 f
76.89 e
3.75 f
22.09 e
44.27 bc
104.88 c
21.97 c
109.36 b-d
5.91 c
31.43 b-d
32.20 de
79.07 e
18.67 de
92.02 de
5.02 de
26.45 de
36.52 d
94.95 d
17.22 ef
98.43 de
4.62 ef
29.22 c-e
42.75 c
100.89 cd
21.73 cd
101.65 c-e
5.84 cd
28.29 de
44.60 bc
105.66 c
23.17 bc
124.13 a-c
6.23 bc
35.67 a-c
48.65 b
117.99 b
27.59 a
133.23 ab
6.88 ab
38.29 ab
56.92 a
129.16 a
25.58 ab
144.58 a
7.42 a
41.55 a
4.70
9.27
3.26
24.86
0.87
7.14
-1
LSD Value
70 DAS
Control
-1
LSD Value
Means sharing the same letter(s) within a column did not differ significantly with respect to each other at 5% probability level.
the level of stress ethylene and thus caused the plants to become stress-resistant (Glick et al., 1998).
In the present study, it was observerd that under saline-sodic field conditions, root parameters such as root
length, fresh root weight and dry root weight were improved in plants inoculated with ACC-deaminase-containing rhizobacterial strains compared with control plants
(Table 1). The underlying reason might be the reduction of
the stress ethylene level with ACC-deaminase-containing
rhizobacteria, which convert ACC (an immediate precursor
of ethylene biosynthesis) into ammonia (NH3) and
a-ketobutyrate instead of ethylene. Similar results were reported by several other researchers (Belimov et al., 2002;
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