Open Access

ARTICLE

Influence of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacterial Inoculation on Wheat Productivity Under Soil Salinity Stress

Muhammad Zafar-ul-Hye^1,*, Tariq Shahzad Bhutta¹, Muhammad Shaaban¹, Shahid Hussain¹, Muhammad Farooq Qayyum¹, Umar Aslam¹ and Zahir Ahmad Zahir²

1 Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
2 Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2019, 88(2), 119-129. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2019.06570

Abstract

Soil salinity affects the growth and yield of crops. The stress of soil salinity on plants can be mitigated by inoculation of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPR). The influence of PGPR inoculation on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop productivity under salinity stress has not been properly addressed so far. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effects of various PGPR strains (W14, W10 and 6K; alone and combined) at several growth attributes of wheat plant under different soil salinity gradients (3, 6 and 9 dS m-1). The growth attributes of wheat (height, roots, shoots, spikes, grains quality, biological and economical yield, nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in grains) were highly affected by salinity and decreased with increasing salinity level. The PGPR inoculation substantially promoted growth attributes of wheat and prominent results were observed in W14 × W10 × 6K treatment at all salinity levels. The results suggest that inoculation of PGPR is a potential strategy to mitigate salinity stress for improving wheat growth and yield.

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