Inoculation of Herbaspirillum Seropedicae Increases Biomass in Maize Roots in the Early Stages of Plant Development

Abstract

Herbaspirillum seropedicae is a plant growth-promoting bacteria isolated from diverse plant species. In this work, the main objective was to investigate the efficiency of H. seropedicae strain SmR1 in colonizing and increasing maize growth in the early stages of development under greenhouse conditions. Inoculation with H. seropedicae resulted in 10.51 and 19.43% in mean of increase of root biomass concerning non-inoculated controls, mainly in the initial stages of plant development, at 21 days after emergence (DAE). Quantification of H. seropedicae in roots and leaves was performed by quantitative PCR.. H. seropedicae was detected only in maize inoculated roots by qPCR, and a slight decrease in DNA copy number g−1 of fresh root weight was observed from 7 to 21 DAE, suggesting that there was initial effective colonization on maize plants. H. seropedicae strain SmR1 efficiently increased maize root biomass exhibiting its potencial to be used as inoculant in agricultures systems.