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ACC deaminase-producing rhizosphere competent Bacillus spp. mitigate salt stress and promote Zea mays growth by modulating ethylene metabolism

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Abstract

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are known for growth promotion and mitigating environmental stresses. Here, we examined the propitiousness of three indigenous salt-tolerant PGPR, i.e., Bacillus subtilis (NBRI 28B), B. subtilis (NBRI 33 N), and B. safensis (NBRI 12 M) for plant growth promotion and salt stress amelioration in Zea mays. Results of the in vitro plant growth-promoting attribute revealed NBRI 12 M demonstrated the highest values at 1 M salt (NaCl) concentration. Furthermore, the greenhouse experiment using three Bacillus strains confirmed plant growth-promoting and salt stress-ameliorating ability, through colonizing successfully and mitigating the adverse effects of ethylene by modulating 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) accumulation, ACC-oxidase (ACO), and ACC-synthase (ACS) activities under salt stress. Bacillus sp. inoculation has also induced plant response for defense enzymes, chlorophyll, proline and soluble sugar under salt stress. Among three Bacillus strains, NBRI 12 M not only demonstrated higher values for plant growth-promoting (PGP) attributes but also the same was observed in the greenhouse experiment. Thus, the outcomes of this comparative study represent for the first time that salt-tolerant Bacillus strains exhibiting multiple PGP attributes under salt stress along with high rhizosphere competence can alleviate salt stress by reducing the stress ethylene level in the host plant.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Director, CSIR National Botanical Research Institute for providing facilities and support during the study.

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial assistance from the CSIR Network project MLP022 and In-house project OLP105.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbial Technologies Division, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Lucknow, 226001, India

    Sankalp Misra & Puneet Singh Chauhan

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Sankalp Misra & Puneet Singh Chauhan

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  1. Sankalp Misra
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  2. Puneet Singh Chauhan
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PSC conceived and co-ordinated the research. SM conducted experiments and analyzed the data. PSC and SM wrote the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Puneet Singh Chauhan.

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Misra, S., Chauhan, P.S. ACC deaminase-producing rhizosphere competent Bacillus spp. mitigate salt stress and promote Zea mays growth by modulating ethylene metabolism. 3 Biotech 10, 119 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-020-2104-y

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