NISHA CHOUDHARY, KRITIKA RAJVANSHI, R. K. GAUR AND RAKESH KUMAR VERMA*
Department of Biosciences, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Mody University of Science and Technology,
Lakshmangarh, Sikar-332 311 (Rajasthan), India
*(e-mail : rkwat4@yahoo.com; Mobile : 97838 64011)
(Received: November 25, 2022; Accepted: January 4, 2023)
ABSTRACT
The leaves of the Leptadenia pyrotechnica plant, native to the Bikaner region of Rajasthan, India, are the
source of the bacterial endophyte Bacillus subtilis strain LP-B (Accession number: OP535977). To identify
the bacterial species 16s-rDNA ribotyping was used followed by evaluation of the isolated bacterial strain for its plant growth promotion activities such as ability to fix nitrogen, produce IAA, HCN, siderophores, ammonia and so on. Furthermore, the endophyte’s ability was analyzed to produce extracellular enzymes likewise amylase, chitinase, cellulase, protease and catalase. The isolated endophyte produced IAA27±0.375 µg/ml with 5 mg/ml tryptophan after 14 days of inoculation. The phylogenetic analysis exhibited that the isolated strain LP-B had ancestry and maximum nucleotide sequence similarity (99%) with Bacillus subtilis isolates of India and Iraq. The findings indicated that the isolated endophyte was a good candidate for plant growth promoting inoculants to help reduce chemical input in conventional agricultural practices and plant tolerance in stress conditions such as drought and heat. It is worthwhile to invest in the future use of these extracellular enzymes for medicinal and industrial purposes.
Key words : Endophyte, plant growth promotion activities, phylogenetic analysis, indole acetic acid