Enhancing Water Status and Nutrient Uptake in Drought-Stressed Lettuce Plants (Lactuca sativa L.) via Inoculation with Different Bacillus spp. Isolated from the Atacama Desert
Author:
Santander Christian12ORCID, González Felipe13, Pérez Urley1, Ruiz Antonieta1ORCID, Aroca Ricardo4ORCID, Santos Cledir1ORCID, Cornejo Pablo56ORCID, Vidal Gladys2ORCID
Affiliation:
1. Departamento de Ciencias Químicas y Recursos Naturales, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811230, Chile 2. Grupo de Ingeniería Ambiental y Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales y Centro EULA-Chile, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4070411, Chile 3. Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Mención Biología Celular y Molecular Aplicada, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811230, Chile 4. Departamento de Microbiología del Suelo y la Planta, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, CSIC, Profesor Albareda 1, 18008 Granada, Spain 5. Escuela de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Quillota 2260000, Chile 6. Centro Regional de Investigación e Innovación para la Sostenibilidad de la Agricultura y los Territorios Rurales, CERES, La Palma, Quillota 2260000, Chile
Abstract
Drought is a major challenge for agriculture worldwide, being one of the main causes of losses in plant production. Various studies reported that some soil’s bacteria can improve plant tolerance to environmental stresses by the enhancement of water and nutrient uptake by plants. The Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest place on earth, harbors a largely unexplored microbial richness. This study aimed to evaluate the ability of various Bacillus sp. from the hyper arid Atacama Desert in the improvement in tolerance to drought stress in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. capitata, cv. “Super Milanesa”) plants. Seven strains of Bacillus spp. were isolated from the rhizosphere of the Chilean endemic plants Metharme lanata and Nolana jaffuelii, and then identified using the 16s rRNA gene. Indole acetic acid (IAA) production, phosphate solubilization, nitrogen fixation, and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase activity were assessed. Lettuce plants were inoculated with Bacillus spp. strains and subjected to two different irrigation conditions (95% and 45% of field capacity) and their biomass, net photosynthesis, relative water content, photosynthetic pigments, nitrogen and phosphorus uptake, oxidative damage, proline production, and phenolic compounds were evaluated. The results indicated that plants inoculated with B. atrophaeus, B. ginsengihumi, and B. tequilensis demonstrated the highest growth under drought conditions compared to non-inoculated plants. Treatments increased biomass production and were strongly associated with enhanced N-uptake, water status, chlorophyll content, and photosynthetic activity. Our results show that specific Bacillus species from the Atacama Desert enhance drought stress tolerance in lettuce plants by promoting several beneficial plant traits that facilitate water absorption and nutrient uptake, which support the use of this unexplored and unexploited natural resource as potent bioinoculants to improve plant production under increasing drought conditions.
Funder
Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Chile Ministerio de Educación, Chile
Subject
Plant Science,Ecology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
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