Salt Tolerant Rhizobacteria from Coastal Region of Bangladesh Portrayed the Potential for Plant Growth Promotion

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria can effectively reduce the severity of different abiotic stresses like water stress, temperature stress, salt stress, etc. on plant growth and development. The study aimed at isolating salt-tolerant rhizobacteria followed by their morphological, biochemical and plant growth promotion traits evaluation. Sixteen root samples of nine different plant species were collected from two locations of Patuakhali, a coastal southern district of Bangladesh. Thirty rhizobacteria were isolated, fifteen from each location, to assess their halotolerance and plant growth promoting potential. The isolated rhizobacteria were subjected to morphological (viz. shape, colour and elevation), biochemical (viz. Gram reaction, catalase test and HCN production) and growth-promoting traits [viz. phosphate solubilizing ability, salt tolerance, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production, and N2-fixation] characterization. Twenty-eight isolates were Gram positive, 27 were catalase positive, and nine showed varying degrees of phosphate solubilization on National Botanical Research Institute of Phosphate (NBRIP) medium. Isolate PWB5 showed the highest phosphate solubilizing index (PSI = 3.83±0.098) on the 6th day. To screen salt-tolerant rhizobacteria, the isolates were cultured in NBA media containing different (0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 12%, 15%) NaCl concentrations. Isolate PWB12 and PWB13 grew at 15% NaCl concentration. Eleven isolates exhibited IAA producing ability on Winogradsky medium amended with L-tryptophan among which four (PMB13, PMB14, PMB15 and PWB6) were strong IAA producers. Twenty-seven isolates were potential N2-fixer and among them, 20 were highly efficient, but none of the isolates was HCN producer. The rhizobacteria isolated in the current research work showed some potential plant growth-promoting traits which seem applicable for crop production, especially, under salt stress condition.