Effect of phosphate solubilizing bacteria on plant growth promotion and nodulation in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) Singh AV1,*, Shah S1, Prasad B2 1Department of Biological Sciences, G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Hill Campus, Ranichauri, Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand – 249 199, India. 2Department of Seed Science and Technology, G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Hill Campus, Ranichauri, Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand – 249 199, India. *E mail: ajaygbpuat@gmail.com
Abstract Influence of three phosphate solubilizing bacteria i.e. RMV1, RMV4 and RPB3 were evaluated on growth, seed yield and nodulation of soybean through seed inoculation under field conditions. Results of the study revealed that all these isolates had significant impact on plant growth in terms of field emergence, root length, plant height, nodule dry weight, number of branch and nodule per plant and finally seed yield over control. Among these, RPB3 exhibited greatest influence by 24.31, 64.79, 26.89, 32.69 and23.88% for germination, root length, plant height, number of branches per plant and seed yield respectively. While, RMV4 and RMV1 reflected lesser influence than RPB3 for the characters studied. However, RPB3, RMV4 and RMV1 showed 74.68, 61.74 and 53.95% increment on nodulation, respectively over control, while dry weight of nodule enhanced by 86.08, 71.47 and 61.32%. The better performance of these three bacterial isolates was attributed to their greater phosphate solubilization ability and positively correlated with plant growth and seed yield of soybean. However, RPB3 was rated as good candidate to be developed into a phosphate solubilizing bio-inoculant. Top Keywoards PGPR, Phosphate solubilization, nodulation, seed yield, soybean. Top |