Abstract
In the present study halotolerant bacteria were isolated from saline soil (EC ~ 11.9). Based on salt tolerance and plant growth promoting characteristics isolate AF7 was selected for further study. It was identified as Alcaligenes sp. on the basis of protein profiling and 16S rRNA sequence homology. Interestingly, AF7 showed diverse PGP characters at different salinity levels. While phosphate solubilization activity was expressed up to 300 mM NaCl, siderophore production was shown up to 700 mM, zinc solubilization up to 1000 mM and indole acetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acid (GA) and exopolysaccharides (EPS) production were depicted till 1400 mM. Correlative and regression analysis suggested positive relation between IAA, GA, EPS, siderophore production and zinc solubilization capability of AF7 and salinity up to 300 mM NaCl. EPS was found to be the most significant response and there was 263% increment in presence of 300 mM NaCl when compared to non-saline control. Analysis also showed that while growth promoting attributes were significant up to a threshold salinity level, further increasing the stress deviates the mechanism towards survival involving proline, antioxidant and hydroxyl scavenging activities. Combination of halotolerant AF7 and EPS showed more than twofold increase in the vegetative growth parameters of rice at ~ 170 mM NaCl (EC 9 dS/m). The study shows the mechanisms/metabolites of the plant growth promoting bacterium (PGPB) AF7 prominently involved during the salinity stress. Study also proves that novel bioformulations can be developed by integrative use of EPS and salt tolerant-PGPB which can be effective for saline soils.