S.K. Sawale, A.S. Pawar and N.V. Phirke
Abstract
Present study conducted with an aim of isolating and identifying rhizobial strains associated with soybean root nodules and assessing their plant growth-promoting properties. Total 131 isolates were screened for their biotechnological potential for promoting plant growth. From which, nine isolates were chosen for further analysis based on their in vitro plant growth-promoting activities including indole-3-acetic acid production, mineral solubilization, nitrogen fixation, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) production. All the screened isolates showed positive test for N2-fixation. Among the isolates tested for mineral solubilization, strain BJ1 and BJ8 efficiently solubilized phosphate as they showed maximum solubilization index (6 mm). BJ5 was found efficient for potassium solubilization and BJ4 and BJ5 for Zinc solubilization. Highest IAA production was exhibited by strain BJ7 (110.9 õg/ml) and BJ9 (90 õg/ml) and lowest by BJ1 (10 õg/ml).