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Bacillus megaterium strain A12 ameliorates salinity stress in tomato plants through multiple mechanisms

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-09-09, 12:04 authored by Waheed Akram, Hina Aslam, Sajid Rashid Ahmad, Tehmina Anjum, Nasim Ahmad Yasin, Waheed Ullah Khan, Aqeel Ahmad, Juxian Guo, Tingquan Wu, Wenlong Luo, Guihua Li

Plants must cope with the stress conditions to survive. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria can improve plant growth either directly or indirectly under stress conditions. However, the possible mechanisms remain unclear. Here we report that Bacillus megaterium strain A12 (BMA12) maintains hormonal and redox homeostasis and restores the photosynthetic efficacy of tomato plants through multiple mechanisms to survive under salinity stress conditions. Tomato plants were co-cultivated with BMA12 under saline conditions. The application of BMA12 significantly increased plant growth and photosynthetic capacity. BMA12 decreased production of ROS and ethylene but increased expression levels of selected genes responsible for repairing of damaged photosynthetic apparatus and maintenance of redox homeostasis. Furthermore, BMA12 significantly altered metabolic profile to restore perturbations of tomato plant physiology impaired with salinity stress. This study proves that BMA12 can be used in the conventional agriculture system in the salinity effected fields.

Funding

We are grateful for financial assistance from the Guangzhou Science and Technology Foundation (Project No. 201704020100), and the President of Guangdong academy of Agricultural Sciences Fund (Project No. 2018B).

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