Evaluation of Endophytes for Enhancing the Growth and Seed Yield in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Background: Endophytes are microorganisms that reside in the tissues of living plants are relatively unstudied as a potential source of novel natural products for exploitation in medicine, agriculture and industry. In present study, the endophytes were extracted from aerial parts of chickpea (stem and leaves) brought from three different villages of Vijayapur district. Methods: The isolation of bacteria was done and their morphological and biochemical properties were studied. The screening was done to select efficient endophytes based on compatibility test between Rhizobium GV-2 and the isolated endophytic bacteria and indole acetic acid test. Accordingly, three efficient endophytes BL-4, MS-1 and MS-4 were selected and identified as Bacillus thuringiensis, B. cereus strain LPDB2 and B. cereus strain LPDB5 based on 16S rRNA molecular identification. These three efficient endophytes along with the Rhizobium GV-2 were treated with the chickpea seeds in different combinations and sown in pot culture and field condition to check the effect of endophytes on crop performance in chickpea. The observations on plant height and dry matter at 30 DAS, 60 DAS and at harvest, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant, seed yield per net plot, seed yield per hectare were recorded. Result: The significant difference was observed among the treatments and the results revealed that treatment with B. thuringiensis+B. cereus strain LPDB2+B. cereus strain LPDB5+Rhizobium GV-2 noticed significantly higher performance in growth and yield parameters.