Isolation and Characterization of Mesophilic Rhizobacteria from Gilgit-Baltistan and their Impact on the Growth of Triticum aestivum L.

ABSTRACT:The basic aim of this work is the isolation of mesophilic rhizobacteria from Gilgit- Baltistan region of Pakistan to study their impact on growth promotion of plants. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) play their part in enhancing overall plant growth and can serve as potential bio-fertilizers. These isolated bacterial strains were screened by checking out their capability to produce auxin. Morphological and physiological characterization was also done. Plant growth-stimulating activities of these isolates were assessed through biological assay. Triticum aestivum seeds were inoculated with these isolates and the effect of these isolates was studied on the growth of wheat. Auxin producing ten bacterial strains were selected and used for the current study. Bacterially treated plants have shown significant enhancement in growth parameters as compared to non-treated plants. All bacterial strains have shown variable behavior. However, bacterial strain Mi5 performed most efficiently. In this case increment of 12.09, 68.82 and 39.89 % have been recorded in plant shoot, root and fresh weight as compared to control. Improvement in various plant growth parameters have shown that these indigenous bacterial strains can be used as biofertilizers in areas like with low temperature.