Assessment of Rice Associated Bacterial Ability to Enhance Rice Seed Germination and Rice Growth Promotion

ABSTRACT The application of beneficial bacteria has recently been used for sustainable agriculture. In current research, 71 bacterial isolates were obtained from rice plant and the rhizosphere soil of different paddy fields in Guilan province, Iran. After primitive investigation, 40 bacteria with typical predominant characteristics were selected. By PCR-RFLP of their 16S r-DNA gene, 8 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) totally consisted of 33 isolates were obtained. From all of them, 8 isolates were selected for rice seed germination experiment, then, effective isolates were used for pot experiment to evaluate their ability for promoting rice growth. All of them were able to increase rice growth and yield, but in different potential. These tested isolates were identified as Alcaligenes faecalis (DEp8, O1R4), Pantoea ananatis (AEn1), Bacillus vietnamensis (MR5), Bacillus idriensis (MR2) and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia by partial sequencing of their 16S r-DNA gene. Among them, AEn1 and MR5 produced indole-3- acetic acid (IAA) in larger amounts than the other isolates and the isolates AEn1 and O1R4 were able to solubilize phosphate in higher amounts. According to the results obtained, it can be concluded that AEn1, O1R4 and MR5 can be considered as bacterial inoculants to use as alternatives for chemical fertilizers