Wheat is a staple and most widely grown crop in the world; it holds the first rank in the world among grain production. As the population expands exponentially, the consumption and production rate of wheat also increase. For higher production, various chemical fertilizers are used in an uncontrolled manner. Hence, these practices affect both wheat yield and soil health, specifically salinity. In this study, improvement of growth wheat under saline condition through microbe-plant interaction was evaluated. For this purpose, a bacterial isolated from rice rhizosphere i.e. PT-5A having multiple plant growth promoting traits was interacted with wheat seedlings under normal as well as saline condition. This isolate demonstrated relative growth up to 36.52% in 25% NaCl salt concentration compared to growth in non-saline condition. In plant-microbe interaction experiment, wheat seedlings grown in hydroponic condition exhibited better growth parameters when inoculated with isolate PT-5A under normal and saline condition. Bacterial isolate PT-5A also eliminated salt stress through improvement of biochemical and antioxidant status of seedlings. It improved membrane stability of the seedlings as determined by electrical conductivity and malondialdehyde equivalent quantification. In salt stress, PGPR strain PT-5A inoculated seedlings showed a significantly increased chlorophyll content and decrease in proline, H2O2 content, SOD and POD activities, malondialdehyde concentration, and TSS content in comparison to the negative control seedlings. This research concludes that inoculating wheat seedlings with PGPR stain PT-5A improved their biochemical and physiological parameters and helped the wheat seedlings to extreme salt stress conditions.

Wheat, Salt tolerance, PGPR, Biochemical, Morphological

In comparison to un-inoculated seedlings, our study showed that inoculating wheat seedlings with PGPR isolate PT-5A enhanced their biochemical and physiological state and helped them endure NaCl stress to a greater extent. The PGPR inoculation appears to have a function in reducing the effects of salt stress, as the results show. Thus, PGPR plant inoculation may be a viable solution to reduce NaCl stress-induced damage in wheat seedlings. Nevertheless, additional research must be done to evaluate this strain's effectiveness in alleviating NaCl stress in wheat crops under typical field settings.

Prashant Gigaulia, Keerti Tantwai, Swapnil Sapre, Surabhi Pandey, Vinod Kumar Sahu and Sushma Nema (2023). Potential of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria for Improvement of Growth and Biochemical Status of Wheat Seedlings under Salinity. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(12): 124-131.