Mesude Figen Dönmez

Use of Bioinoculants in Ameliorative Effects on Radish Plants Under Salinity Stress

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) on emergence, growth, physiology, and mineral content of radish under salinity stress. The study was conducted in pot experiments using a mixture of soil: sand (1:1 v: v) under greenhouse conditions. Bacillus subtilis EY2, Bacillus atrophaeus EY6, and Bacillus spharicus GC subgrup B EY30 were isolated in highly salty soils in Upper Coruh Valley in Turkey. Seeds were soaked in the bacterial suspension incubated at 27°C for 2 h. Emergence percentage (EP) was reduced and mean emergence time (MET) raised with sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions. Inoculated seeds displayed greater EP and less MET compared to the non-inoculated ones. Salinity negatively affected growth of radish; however, plant growth promoting bacteria treatments positively affected growth parameters such as fresh weight (278% for shoot, 371% for root) and dry weights (250% for shoot, 422% for root) compared to non-treated plants that were challenged with salt stress. Furthermore, selected bacteria caused an increase in uptake of minerals except sodium (Na) compared to the non-treated controls in both salt stress and salt stress absence. Sodium concentration of plant leaves was increased by salt stress while bacterial inoculation decreased its concentration. Bacterial treatments increased chlorophyll content and decreased electrolyte leakage of plants in saline conditions. Leaf relative water content (LRWC) of plants in the salt stress condition increased with bacterial application, but reduced without bacterial application. The present study suggests that PGPB seed treatments can ameliorate the deleterious effects of salt stress on radish plants and PGPB could offer an economical and simple application to reduce problems of radish production in an Aridisol caused by high salinity.

Diversity and metabolic potential of culturable bacteria from the rhizosphere of Turkish tea grown in acidic soils

The purpose of this study was to investigate the diversity of cultivable phosphate solubilising (PSB) and total bacteria originated from 384 rhizospheric acidic soils samples of tea plants grown at 32 locations. Over 900 rhizoplane bacteria were randomly selected from agar-solidified trypticase soy broth, and identified using fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles. Based on FAME profiles, 53 bacterial genera were identified with a similarity index >0.3, but 60.3% of the identified isolates belonged to five genera: Bacillus (34.6%), Pseudomonas (8.9%), Stenotrophomonas (6.1%), Paenibacillus (5.9%) and Arthrobacter (4.8%). The bacilli group comprised many different species, with the most abundant being B. cereus, B. megaterium and B. sphaericus. The main identified Pseudomonads included P. fluorescens, P. putida, and P. alcaligenes. About 30.4% of the bacterial isolates could not be classified to genus since their similarity indices were <0.3 indicating no close matches. Most of the total and P-solubilizing bacteria isolated were Gram positive (61.3 and 52.3%), and Gram negative constituted only 38.7 and 47.7%. Out of the 214 PSB from a pool of 506 bacterial isolates recovered on the selective media from the rhizosphere of tea, 74 of them were characterized by carbon sources using BIOLOGM GN2 and GP2 plates. Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Paenibacillus and Stenotrophomonas genera were the most prominent P-solubilizing groups in the rhizosphere and soil populations analyzed. B. cereus, P. fluorescens, S. maltophilia, B. megaterium, P. putida, B. sphaericus and Paenibacillus polymyxa were the most frequent P-solubilizing species in the acidic tea rhizosohere soils. Selected Gram-positive PSB appeared to favour carbohydrates, and Gram-negative bacteria appeared to favour carboxylic acids, amino acids and carbohydrates as carbon sources. Selected phosphate solubilizing acid tolerant strains showed high variability in utilizing various carbon sources.

First Report of Bacterial Blight of Mulberries Caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. mori in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey

During spring 1999, a severe bacterial blight disease was observed on white mulberry (Morus alba L.) trees grown in the Erzincan, Erzurum, and Artvin provinces in the eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. Initial symptoms appeared as small, water-soaked spots on leaves and shoots. The spots eventually expanded and resulted in dark brown to black, elongated, stripe-like lesions on shoots. Diseased leaves wilted at the twig tips and later died. Disease incidence was close to 100% in the regions surveyed. Fluorescent bacteria were isolated consistently from lesions on diseased leaves and shoots on Kings medium B. Morphological and biochemical characteristics of 16 presumptive strains tested were rod-shaped, aerobic, gram negative, oxidase negative, and catalase and levan positive. None of the strains reduced nitrate or hydrolyzed gelatin. All strains were confirmed as Pseudomonas syringae by gas-chromatography fatty acid methyl ester (GC-FAME) analysis, with a similarity index ranging from 0.82 to 0.94. The pathogen was identified as P. syringae pv. mori based on pathogenicity tests performed by spray-inoculating healthy leaves (M. alba cv. Beyaz Dut) on 1-year-old host twigs with suspensions of 108 CFU/ml each strain (2). Inoculated plants and sterile water-sprayed controls were maintained in a greenhouse at 18 to 28°C. Plants were covered with polyethylene bags for 48 h after inoculation. Within 7 to 10 days, necrotic spots typical of those found in the nursery were observed on inoculated leaves. No symptoms were seen on control plants. The pathogen was reisolated from lesions on inoculated leaves. Recovered strains were identical to initial strains, based on morphological and biochemical tests and GC-FAME analysis. To our knowledge, the occurrence and incidence of this disease in different geographic regions of Turkey, except the central Anatolia and Aegean regions, have not been studied (1). This is the first report of bacterial blight of mulberries at high incidence in the eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. References: (1) K. Türkolu and Y. E. Öktem. Plant Prot. Bull 13:19, 1973. (2) J. M. Young et al. N. Z.J. Agric. Res. 21:159, 1978.

Integrated Use of Nitrogen Fertilization and Microbial Inoculation: Change in the Growth and Chemical Composition of White Cabbage

ABSTRACT Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of seed and seedling inoculation by plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on nitrogen use efficiency, growth, yield, and chemical composition of cabbage at varying levels of nitrogen (N). Data revealed that N alone or in combination with PGPR either as seed or seedling inoculation significantly improved growth, yield, and nutrients of cabbage. PGPR inoculations were more efficient than non-inoculated controls in terms of yield and yield parameters. This study showed that seed and seedling inoculation increased yield and yield parameters as well as chlorophyll reading value and stomatal conductance versus controls. Applications of mineral fertilizers with microbial applications save 25% of mineral fertilizers yet give 33% more yield versus full doses of mineral application without microbial applications. Both seed and seedling treatments increased the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) rates by 45, 53, 58, 45, and 40%, and 49, 59, 68, 69, 60, and 55%, respectively.

Effect of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria on Fe Acquisition in Peach (Prunus Persica L) Under Calcareous Soil Conditions

Abstract The effects of Alcaligenes 637Ca, Agrobacterium A18, Staphylococcus MFDCa1, MFDCa2, Bacillus M3 and Pantoea FF1 were tested on peach cv. ‘Elegant Lady’ on GF677 and Nemaguard rootstocks. Average increases in citric, malic, oxalic, butyric and fumaric acid in the leaf were obtained from rhizobacterial root inoculations of 33.1, 17.5, 21.7, 26.5, and 44.7% in Elegant Lady/Nemaguard, respectively. FF1 showed the highest FC-R activity in the roots of Nemaguard (112.4 nmol FW gr−1 hr−2) and GF677 (162 nmol FW gr−1 hr−2). The highest FC-R activity in the leaf was with MFDCa2 in Elegant Lady/Nemaguard (57.1 nmol FW gr−1 hr−2) and 637Ca in Elegant Lady/GF677 (87.9 nmol FW gr−1 hr−2). PGPR strains used in this study expressed increased leaf organic acid content, FC-R activity in the roots and leaf, increased active Fe content in the leaf, and possessed a great potential for the improvement of iron availability to plants.

The use of PGPR (plant growth promoting rhizobacteria) in organic apricot production.

During the years 2000-2001, a study was conducted in Malatya province of Turkey to determine the effects of foliar application of bacteria Bacillus OSU-142 on yield, growth and control of disease (shot-hole) of apricot cv. Hacihaliloglu. In vitro production of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) by PGPR was also determined. The trees were sprayed with bacteria at 10 9 CFU/ml concentrations and results showed that Bacillus OSU-142 had the capacity to increase yield (approximately 41.0-58.5 kg/tree) and quality by reducing shot-hole disease severity (2.63-3.43) and incidence (5.0-24.67%).