Development and Characterization of Efficient K-Solubilizing Rhizobacteria and Mesorhizobial Inoculants for Chickpea

Ali Raza Siddiqui, Sher Muhammad Shahzad, Muhammad Ashraf, Tahira Yasmeen, Rizwana Kausar, Gadah Albasher, Saad Alkahtani and Awais Shakoor
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Ali Raza Siddiqui: Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Punjab, Pakistan
Sher Muhammad Shahzad: Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Punjab, Pakistan
Muhammad Ashraf: Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60000, Punjab, Pakistan
Tahira Yasmeen: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, GC, University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Punjab, Pakistan
Rizwana Kausar: Soil and Water Testing Laboratory for Research, Sargodha 40100, Punjab, Pakistan
Gadah Albasher: Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Saad Alkahtani: Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Awais Shakoor: Department of Environment and Soil Sciences, University of Lleida, Avinguda Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: The use of mineral fertilizers has long been associated with the improved growth of crop plants as well as increased yield potential per unit area. However, the incessant practice of imbalanced fertilizers application has increased the economic and environmental costs for the agricultural sector. The deficiency of potassium (K) has been identified as a primary crop production challenge in certain semi-arid regions where soil-K reserves are increasingly being depleted. This study aimed to isolate and characterize K-solubilizing bacterial strains from the rhizosphere and root nodules of chickpea. Initially, 50 rhizobacterial strains and 50 rhizobial strains were isolated using Aleksandrov’s medium. Each of these collections was narrowed down to 25 strains, following a rigorous qualitative screening based on different physiological, morphological and biochemical tests. From these, five strains each of rhizosphere and nodule origins were selected based on qualitative as well quantitative determination of various growth promoting traits. In addition to efficient potassium and phosphate solubilization, the selected strains displayed better growth conditions, as evident by glucose substrate use at 25 °C and pH 7. In this study, we found that strains SKB3 (rhizosphere) and JKR7 (rhizobia) were the most efficient K-solubilizers. Additionally, they possessed diverse plant growth promoting traits such as root colonization, the synthesis of siderophores, exopolysaccharides, chitinase activity, indole-acetic acid production and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid deaminase activity. Overall, our results suggest that the application of bacterial K-solubilizers could be employed as a useful K-supplement in K-limited agroecosystems. Moreover, the use of these K-solubilizers may help lead in alleviating the negative environmental impacts associated with chemical fertilizer.

Keywords: bacterial co-inoculants; K-solubilizing activity; screening; characterization; legume (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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