Phenotypic display of plant growth-promoting traits in individual strains and multispecies consortia of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and rhizobia under salinity stress

The use of multispecies plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in conjunction with rhizobia is a favourable tool for mitigating salt stress to legumes. However there is a need to understand the synergistic effect of PGPR in consortia, while also demonstrating the PGP effect under salinity. In this study, we have evaluated PGPR bacteria belonging to Enterobacter, Pseudomonas and rhizobia, individually as well as in consortia for plant growth promoting traits viz. indole acetic acid (IAA), biofilm and siderophore production, under salt stress. Interestingly, several consortia demonstrated better stress tolerance and responded with increased PGPR effect suggesting synergy between these multispecies combinations. Present work reports promising novel combina-tions of soil isolates which show enhanced PGP traits in consortia that could mitigate salt stress.