Morphological and Physiological Diversity of Native Fluorescent Pseudomonads from Eastern India

Abstract

The potential negative effect of agrochemicals on the global environment and the cost associated with production lead to research for replacing the chemical fertilizers with bacterial inoculants. Pseudomonas fluorescens an important biocontrol agent because of its ability to induce plant growth and fungicidal/fungistatic activity. The native population of these rhizobacteria plays an important role in sustainable agriculture as they majorly dominate the rhizosphere. In the present study native, twenty-six fluorescent Pseudomonad cultures were isolated from the rhizospheric soil samples collected from the different locations of Zone 3A, Bihar and evaluated for their morphological and physiological diversity. Among the sixteen fluorescent pseudomonads tested, twelve of them produced round to oval colonies on Kings B medium. Of the sixteen isolates ascertained WHSB was produced maximum (51.33 x10‑8) number of colonies on Kings B medium followed by MSSB (28.33 X10‑8), BRKH (26.67 x10‑8) and TMSB (26.00 x10‑8). Fluorescent pseudomonad isolates varied slightly in their colony colour like green, dull-white, whitish-yellow and yellow on culture medium, the pH of 7.5 and glucose as a carbon source found best for the growth of fluorescent pseudomonads. The present work may use to develop effective formulations of potential fluorescent pseudomonads for management of soil-borne plant pathogens.