No abstract

In 2000, agriculture contributed 13% to the national gross domestic product of Malaysia. The country of 23 million people has created a competitive program coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, research institutions, and universities to undertake biotechnology research in several areas. Intensified research efforts are under way on oil palm, rubber, rice, papaya, and orchids. Although the most progress has been made in rice and papaya, no transgenic crop is ready for field trials. Nonetheless, preliminary steps have been taken to prepare for the trials, and detailed testing protocols are being developed.

Abstract

Phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) is included in one of the effective organisms for plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and considered as promising biofertilizers. This study is focused on identifying with inoculations PSB will give effects to the solubilization of phosphorus in soil and become available for plant uptake. To address this, four treatments are set up which are Merlimau soil (T0), Merlimau soil with Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) (T1), Tanjong Karang soil (T2), and Tanjong Karang soil with PSB (T3). Available P for the treatments and the value of soil pH is being taken as the parameter. Besides, the growth performance of rice plants was also recorded with the measurement of plant height, the number of tillers, and the number of leaves on weekly for five weeks. The soil analysis for available P and the soil pH was found to have a significant increase when treated with PSB as shown for the results of T1 and T3. The plant analysis for the growth performance of rice plants also shows that better growth of plants for the soils that have been treated with PSB. Thus, the application of PSB to the rice-field soil can increase P availability and reduce the acidity of the soil. In addition, it gives effect to the performance of the rice growth where this study shows results in increasing plant height, higher development of tillers, and plant leaves compared to the soils that do not treated with PSB.

Sheath Brown Rot (SBR) is one of the most important diseases that affect rice plant. The disease cause rots to the sheaths, panicles and leaves of rice plant. The disease also contaminating rice seeds through grain's discoloration thus leads in reduction of rice production. In this study, 50 bacteria isolates that fluoresced under UV illumination on King's B Selective (KBS) medium were obtained. Out of 50 isolates, 25 isolates were positive for both Hypersensitivity Reaction (HR) and pathogenicity tests. They also showed positive results for several biochemical reactions such as oxidase, arginine dihydrolase and trehalose utilization tests. Based on the preliminary tests, all isolates have been identified as Pseudomonas fuscovaginae (P. fuscovaginae). The 16S rDNA sequence analysis showed that all the isolates had 97-99% sequence similarities to Pseudomonas fuscovaginae in the GenBank database. This result was also supported by the constructed phylogenetic tree with the Acidivorax avenae outgroup. It was noted that all 25 isolates originated from the same node with the P. fuscovaginae group. The findings on characteristics of P. fuscovaginae in Peninsular Malaysia hopefully can be used in future studies especially on Malaysian P. fuscovaginae biology and their control.