PJB-2018-1714
Rhizobial inoculation for improving growth physiology, nutrition and yield of maize under drought stress conditions
Muhammad Baqir Hussain, Sajid Mahmood, Niaz Ahmed and Hamid Nawaz
Abstract
Water scarcity is a potential effector restraining crop yield and economic returns to the farmers. This situation may be rescued by inoculating drought tolerant rhizobia owing to their plant growth promotion attributes and high root colonization efficiency. A pot experiment was conducted in sandy clay loam soil to assess the potential of four drought tolerant rhizobial strains Rhizobium phaseoli-RS-1, R. phaseoli-RS-3, Mesorhizobium ciceri-RS-8, and M. ciceri-RS-12 for ameliorating drought impact in maize. The stress was applied at five leave (vegetative) and silking (reproductive) stages. Rhizobial strain RS-8 significantly (p≤0.05) decreased electrolyte leakage and increased root/shoot dry biomass, 100-grain weight and ultimately the grain yield in normal and drought condition compared to respective uninoculated control. Differential response of rhizobial inoculation was observed on physiological characters and plant nutrient uptake under normal and drought condition, however, RS-1 and RS-8 was more promising for improving chlorophyll contents, photosynthetic/transpiration rate, intrinsic water use efficiency, stomatal/mesophyll conductance, relative water contents and nutrient uptake in maize subjected to normal and drought conditions. Moreover, root colonization capability of RS-1 (5.52×107 CFU cm-1 root) and RS-8 (5.89×107 CFU cm-1 root) was higher than control (2.3×104 CFU cm-1 root) and other strains under normal irrigation. Similarly, higher root colonization efficiency of RS-1 and RS-8 was observed under drought stress which seemed to improve plant yield by modulating physiological characters and nutrient uptake in stress conditions. Thus, the results are encouraging in the utilization of rhizobial strains (RS-1, RS-8) as biofertilizer for sustainable production of maize under water deficit conditions
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