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Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments

Global population growth and climate change raise a challenge to agriculture, which, combined with the issues concerning the use of chemical fertilizers, have generated increasing attention in the use of plant-associated bacteria as a sustainable strategy in agri-food systems. The objective of this...

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Autores principales: Riva, Valentina, Mapelli, Francesca, Dragonetti, Giovanna, Elfahl, Mustafa, Vergani, Lorenzo, Crepaldi, Paola, La Maddalena, Nicola, Borin, Sara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8239394/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34211447
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.675552
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author Riva, Valentina
Mapelli, Francesca
Dragonetti, Giovanna
Elfahl, Mustafa
Vergani, Lorenzo
Crepaldi, Paola
La Maddalena, Nicola
Borin, Sara
author_facet Riva, Valentina
Mapelli, Francesca
Dragonetti, Giovanna
Elfahl, Mustafa
Vergani, Lorenzo
Crepaldi, Paola
La Maddalena, Nicola
Borin, Sara
author_sort Riva, Valentina
collection PubMed
description Global population growth and climate change raise a challenge to agriculture, which, combined with the issues concerning the use of chemical fertilizers, have generated increasing attention in the use of plant-associated bacteria as a sustainable strategy in agri-food systems. The objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of five bacterial strains, previously isolated from the rhizosphere or endosphere of plants adapted to harsh environmental conditions, to act as potential plant biofertilizers in different conditions of water availability. The strain biosafety for a deliberate environmental release was investigated through a literature survey and antibiotic resistance testing. The selected strains were first characterized for their plant growth–promoting (PGP) and rhizocompetence-related traits through in vitro assays and then on short-term in vivo experiments on tomato plants. A long-term greenhouse experiment was further conducted to monitor the PGP effect of the bacteria during the entire life cycle of tomato plants subjected to full irrigation or to severe water deficit conditions, aiming to assess their actual effect on plant productivity, which is the ultimate target of the agricultural sector. Some of the strains showed a potential in improving water use efficiency and mitigating plant water stress. Under severe irrigation deficit, four of the tested strains, Micrococcus yunnanensis M1, Bacillus simplex RP-26, Pseudomonas stutzeri SR7-77, and Paenarthrobacter nitroguajacolicus 2–50, significantly increased the number of productive plants in comparison to non-bacterized control ones. Two of them, Bacillus simplex RP-26 and Paenarthrobacter nitroguajacolicus 2–50, demonstrated also, under full irrigation, to significantly improve the water productivity in comparison with non-bacterized plants. Despite all the strains showed promising PGP potential in short-term assays, the positive effect of the bacterial inoculants on plant physiology and fruit yield was observed in some cases but never corroborated by statistical significance. These results highlight the importance of performing long-term in vivo experiments to define the real PGP ability of a bacterial inoculant to positively impact plant production.
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spelling pubmed-82393942021-06-30 Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments Riva, Valentina Mapelli, Francesca Dragonetti, Giovanna Elfahl, Mustafa Vergani, Lorenzo Crepaldi, Paola La Maddalena, Nicola Borin, Sara Front Microbiol Microbiology Global population growth and climate change raise a challenge to agriculture, which, combined with the issues concerning the use of chemical fertilizers, have generated increasing attention in the use of plant-associated bacteria as a sustainable strategy in agri-food systems. The objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of five bacterial strains, previously isolated from the rhizosphere or endosphere of plants adapted to harsh environmental conditions, to act as potential plant biofertilizers in different conditions of water availability. The strain biosafety for a deliberate environmental release was investigated through a literature survey and antibiotic resistance testing. The selected strains were first characterized for their plant growth–promoting (PGP) and rhizocompetence-related traits through in vitro assays and then on short-term in vivo experiments on tomato plants. A long-term greenhouse experiment was further conducted to monitor the PGP effect of the bacteria during the entire life cycle of tomato plants subjected to full irrigation or to severe water deficit conditions, aiming to assess their actual effect on plant productivity, which is the ultimate target of the agricultural sector. Some of the strains showed a potential in improving water use efficiency and mitigating plant water stress. Under severe irrigation deficit, four of the tested strains, Micrococcus yunnanensis M1, Bacillus simplex RP-26, Pseudomonas stutzeri SR7-77, and Paenarthrobacter nitroguajacolicus 2–50, significantly increased the number of productive plants in comparison to non-bacterized control ones. Two of them, Bacillus simplex RP-26 and Paenarthrobacter nitroguajacolicus 2–50, demonstrated also, under full irrigation, to significantly improve the water productivity in comparison with non-bacterized plants. Despite all the strains showed promising PGP potential in short-term assays, the positive effect of the bacterial inoculants on plant physiology and fruit yield was observed in some cases but never corroborated by statistical significance. These results highlight the importance of performing long-term in vivo experiments to define the real PGP ability of a bacterial inoculant to positively impact plant production. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8239394/ /pubmed/34211447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.675552 Text en Copyright © 2021 Riva, Mapelli, Dragonetti, Elfahl, Vergani, Crepaldi, La Maddalena and Borin. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Riva, Valentina
Mapelli, Francesca
Dragonetti, Giovanna
Elfahl, Mustafa
Vergani, Lorenzo
Crepaldi, Paola
La Maddalena, Nicola
Borin, Sara
Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments
title Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments
title_full Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments
title_fullStr Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments
title_full_unstemmed Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments
title_short Bacterial Inoculants Mitigating Water Scarcity in Tomato: The Importance of Long-Term in vivo Experiments
title_sort bacterial inoculants mitigating water scarcity in tomato: the importance of long-term in vivo experiments
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8239394/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34211447
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.675552
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