IMPACT OF ARTHROBACTER MYSORENS, KUSHNERIA AVICENNIAE, HALOMONAS SPP. AND BACILLUS SP. ON HELIANTHUS ANNUUS L. FOR GROWTH ENHANCEMENT
M. Karamat and A. Ahmed*
Department of Botany, University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore 54590, Pakistan
*Author for Correspondence Email: ambreenahmed1@hotmail.com)
ABSTRACT
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria are very important in growth and initial development of plants . In the current work, PGPR treatment of Helianthus annuus L. seeds (Sunflower) was studied. H. annuus is an economically important crop grown for economic purposes such as to make oil for cooking, as medicine for animal feed etc. In the present study, five auxin-producing bacterial strains already isolated and identified by Ahmed (2011) were used. These strains were used to inoculate Helianthus annuus L. seeds var. premium. Plant growth experiments were conducted both in the laboratory as well as under wire house conditions. The microbial strains stimulated overall growth of the seedlings as indicated by various growth and biochemical parameters in different inoculated and non-inoculated treatments. Significant improvement in shoot length app. 136 and 106 % was recorded plants treated with Bacillus and Arthrobacter sp. respectively under field conditions. Similarly app. 51 and 57% increase was recorded in protein content of plants treated with Halomonas venusta and Arthrobacter mysorens compared to control treatment. These strains proved to be very efficient as biofertilizers and can be used for phytostimulation of crops instead of chemical fertilizers.
Key words: PGPR, Arthrobacter, Kushneria, Bacillus, Halomonas |
