Paenibacillus polymyxa, Bacillus licheniformis and Bradyrhizobium japonicum IRAT FA3 Promote Faster Seed Germination Rate, Growth and Disease Resistance under Pathogenic Pressure

Abstract

The detriment of chemical fungicides and pesticides have proven a hindrance in sustainable agriculture and therefore motivated efforts in finding biologically natural alternatives to control plant pathogen infections. The effect of the plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), Paenibacillus polymyxa, Bacillus licheniformis and Bradyrhizobium japonicum IRAT FA3 on seed germination and their biocontrol capability against Pseudomonas syringae pv malculiola in Arabidopsis thaliana were studied in this work. The data presented here demonstrates that the presence of these PGPR promotes the seed germination rate up to 145% higher than the untreated control. This study also describes the symptom isolation observed in Arabidopsis leaves infected with P. syringae, which prevented the infected plants to undergo full-fledged chlorosis suggesting that these PGPR can be possible options in acting as natural biocontrol agents against P. syringae and probably other plant pathogens.