Growth Promotion of Tomato by Application of Immobilized Arthrobacter woluwensis ED in Alginate Beads

Abstract

In order to increase the persistence of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in rhizpsphere soil, the growth of tomato was examined after the application of Arthrobacter woluwensis ED immobilized in alginate bead, which was known as PGPR. When tomato seedlings were treated with A. woluwensis ED of 1 × 10 6 cells g soil -1 and incubated for 30 days in a plant growth chamber, the shoot length, root length, fresh weight and dry weight of the grown tomato plants treated with the suspended inoculants significantly increased by 36.2, 59, 51.1, and 37.5%, respectively compared to those of the uninoculated control. The treatment of the immobilized bacteria increased those by 42, 67.4, 62.5, and 60.4%, respectively compared to those of the uninoculated control. Therefore, the enhancement of tomato growth by the treatment of the immobilized bacteria was higher than those by the suspended inoculants. The effects of the inoculation on indigenous bacterial community and the fate of the inoculated bacteria were monitored by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis. The DNA band intensity of A. woluwensis ED in the tomato rhizosphere treated with the suspended inoculants continuously decreased after the inoculation, but the band intensity in the tomato rhizosphere soils treated with the immobilized inoculants showed the maximum at 1 week after inoculation and the decreasing rate was less than that of the suspended inoculants, which indicated the longer maintenance of the immobilized bacteria at rhizosphere soils. Therefore, encapsulation of PGPR in alginate beads may be more effective than liquid inoculant for the plant growth promotion and survival of PGPR at plant rhizosphere.