Harnessing the Potential of Symbiotic Endophytic Fungi and Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria to Enhance Soil Quality in Saline Soils

Abstract

Soil salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses limiting crop growth and production worldwide. Some microorganisms can improve the plants’ tolerance to salinity. For this purpose, a greenhouse experiment was performed to understand the influence of various microorganisms on soil biological indices and wheat growth under different saline conditions. The factors varied in the experiment were the microbial treatment (rhizobacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, endophytic fungus, and control) and salinity stress (0.5, 8, and 14 dS m−1). Rhizobacteria were isolated from saline soils, but the fungi were prepared from a microbial bank. Overall, ten isolates were purified, and three with promising growth-promoting properties were identified using phenotypic and molecular methods. The selected isolates belonged to the genera Pseudomonas (P. aeruginosa Ur83 and P. fluorescens Ur67) and Stenotrophomonas (S. maltophilia Ur52). Soil quality indices were found to decrease with increasing salinity, but inoculation with microorganisms alleviated this decline. Inoculation with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs) increased basal respiration, substrate-induced respiration, microbial biomass carbon, acid and alkaline phosphatase activities, and carbon availability by factors of 1.37, 1.27, 1.83, 3.07, 1.29, and 1.11, respectively. These results show that inoculation with symbiotic microorganisms can improve agricultural soil quality under saline conditions and may thus be valuable in agriculture.