Complementarity among plant growth promoting traits in rhizospheric bacterial communities promotes plant growth.
An assessment of roles of rhizospheric microbial diversity in plant growth is helpful in understanding plant-microbe interactions. Using random combinations of rhizospheric bacterial species at different richness levels, we analysed the contribution of species richness, compositions, interactions and identity on soil microbial respiration and plant biomass. We showed that bacterial inoculation in plant rhizosphere enhanced microbial respiration and plant biomass with complementary relationships among bacterial species. Plant growth was found to increase linearly with inoculation of rhizospheric bacterial communities with increasing levels of species or plant growth promoting trait diversity. However, inoculation of diverse bacterial communities having single plant growth promoting trait, i.e., nitrogen fixation could not enhance plant growth over inoculation of single bacteria. Our results indicate that bacterial diversity in rhizosphere affect ecosystem functioning through complementary relationship among plant growth promoting traits and may play significant roles in delivering microbial services to plants.
Department of Microbial Technology, CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow 226015, India.
Mangal
M
Singh
Department of Microbial Technology, CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow 226015, India.
Ashutosh
A
Awasthi
Department of Microbial Technology, CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow 226015, India.
Sumit K
SK
Soni
Department of Microbial Technology, CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow 226015, India.
Rakshapal
R
Singh
Department of Microbial Technology, CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow 226015, India.
Rajesh K
RK
Verma
Department of Microbial Technology, CSIR- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Lucknow 226015, India.
Alok
A
Kalra
D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018533:Biomass; D063245:Plant Development; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology*; D058441:Rhizosphere