MEENAL DIXIT* AND PREETI MISHRA
Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur-302 004 (Rajasthan), India *(e-mail: meenaldixitps@gmail.com; Mobile: 82909 72200)
(Received: April 10, 2024; Accepted: June 13, 2024)
ABSTRACT
Chickpea is one of the major legume crops of India. Although the area under cultivation has increased in last few years, still India is largest importer of chickpea. Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria is part of rhizomicrobiome and plays an important role in growth enhancement by direct or indirect method. In the present study, Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria was isolated from chickpea rhizosphere. They were screened for various in vitro plant growth promoting traits. A total of 17 isolates were found to show plant growth promoting traits and they were nominated as CPRB1-CPRB17. Phosphate solublization varied from 128 to 198 μg/ml. IAA productions was also shown by all the 17 isolates and varied from 0.564 to 0.692 μg/ml in the culture filtrates. None of the isolates was able to produce HCN but ammonia production was shown by all isolates. Siderophore production was shown by only two isolates. These isolates were also tested for antagonist activity against Fusarium oxysporum. Five isolates were found to show antagonist activity. Based on plant growth promoting traits and antagonist activity five isolates were selected and tested for their ability to promote plant growth singly and in consortia. The selected isolates CBRB1, CBRB8, CPRB10, CPRB12 and CPRB13 were identified by 16s rRNA sequencing as Cytobacillus firmus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus paralicheniformis and Bacillus licheniformis.
Key words: Chickpea, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, phosphate solubilization, IAA production, Bacillus