Marinobacter Sp. Zp-2095 Enhances Tomato and Maize to Salt Tolerance for Potential Application in Saline Soil Reclamation

¹ Institute of Microbial Application, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830000, China
² Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China

^a* Corresponding author: lzpzxx@126.com; b* lzpbio@126.com

Abstract

Strain zp-2095, a moderately halophilic bacteria, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Suaeda glauca plant, in the Aiding lake, Xinjiang, China. Molecular identification result indicated strain zp- 2095 is a member of Marinobacter. It could dissolve organophosphorus and produce amylase and cellulase. Strain zp-2095 has the function of fixing nitrogen which is helpful for plant through maintaining nitrogen in the soil. Siderophore, which can enhance the plant's absorption of iron, was produced by strain zp-2095. The results of petri dish growth promotion experiments indicated strain zp-2095 markedly increased the lateral root number of tomato under varying saline-alkali stress (p<0.0001), and the fresh weight of treated plants significantly surpassed that of the control group (p<0.001 or p<0.0001). In a pot experiment, at 0‰ NaCl maize treated with strain zp-2095 showed increases of 16.8% in above-ground and 37.0% in below-ground fresh weight. At 6‰ NaCl, the weights of above-ground and below-ground increased by 29.8% and 30.5%, respectively, showing significant growth improvement (p<0.0001). Overall, this strain plays an important role in promoting plant growth in saline soils.