Potentiality of rhizobacteria to support wheat productivity in saline environments

ABSTRACT

Pots experiment was conducted at the experimental greenhouse of Microbiology Department, Soils; Water and Environment Research Institute [ARC], Giza, Egypt and field experiment was carried out at the experimental saline sodic soil at Sahi El Tina in winter season of 2008-2009 to evaluate the response of wheat plant cultivar Sakha 93 to inoculation with Bacillus sp. and Pseudomnonas sp. isolates, which were isolated from salt affected soil of SahI Eltina Valley. Results revealed that plant height, fresh and dry weight [g/plant] and chlorophyll content of wheat through the pots experiment significantly increased as a result of inoculation with single or dual isolates. Regarding a field experiment, data indicated that inoculation with Bacillus sp. and Pseudomonas sp. isolates reduced the negative effect of salinity on wheat plant, where it significantly increased plant height [72cm] and dry weight [14.1g/plant] through the growth period. Also, spike weight [3.21 ton fed[-1]] and grain yield [1.85 ton fed[-1]] significantly increased. Inoculation with both isolates significantly enhanced the activity of dehydrogenase enzyme in the rhizosphere and crude protein of wheat grain. Concentrations of N, P, K of wheat grain significantly increased [57.6%, 53.6%, 35.4%] by inoculation, where the isolates mixture led to the highest values of N and P while inoculation with Pseudomonas isolate caused the maximum records of K and Na