IBIMA Publishing Journal of Virology & Microbiology http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/JVM/jvm.html Vol. 2013 (2013), Article ID 446006, 19 pages DOI: 10.5171/2013.446006 _____________ Cite this Article as: Sushil K. Sharma, Aketi Ramesh and Bhavdish N. Johri (2013), " Isolation and Characterization of Plant Growth-Promoting Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Strain sks_bnj_1 and its Influence on Rhizosphere Soil Properties and Nutrition of Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill)," Journal of Virology & Microbiology, Vol. 2013 (2013), Article ID 446006, DOI: 10.5171/2013.446006 Research Article Isolation and Characterization of Plant Growth- Promoting Bacillus amyloliquefaciens Strain sks_bnj_1 and its Influence on Rhizosphere Soil Properties and Nutrition of Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) Sushil K. Sharma 1 , Aketi Ramesh 1 and Bhavdish N. Johri 2 1 Directorate of Soybean Research (ICAR), Khandwa Road, Madhya Pradesh, India 2 Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Centre, Barkatullah University, Madhya Pradesh, India Correspondence should be addressed to: Sushil K. Sharma; sks_micro@rediffmail.com Received 20 January 2013; Accepted 25 February 2013; Published 23 April 2013 Academic Editor: Rosario Azcón Copyright © 2013 Sushil K. Sharma, Aketi Ramesh and Bhavdish N. Johri. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 Abstract The objective of this work was to isolate and characterize Bacillus bearing multiple plant growth- promoting traits from diseased roots of soybean and to further assess its inoculation effect on soil rhizosphere properties and nutrition in soybean. The isolate was putatively identified as Bacillus on the basis of cultural characteristics and FAMEs profile, and further sequencing of 16S rRNA gene revealed 98.7% similarity to Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and designated as strain sks_bnj_1 (AY 932823). The strain possessed multiple plant growth-promoting traits such as siderophore production, indole-3-acetic acid-like-compounds, ACC deaminase, phosphatases, phytases, HCN, cellulases, zinc solubilization and antagonisms to soil-borne pathogens. Microcosm study using soybean as an indicator crop revealed that inoculation of this strain sks_bnj_1 significantly increased rhizosphere soil properties (enzyme activities, IAA production, microbial respiration, microbial biomass-C), and nutrient content in straw (K, P, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn) and seeds (K, P, Fe, Mn) of soybean over un-inoculated control. This study suggests that inoculation of B. amyloliquefaciens sks_bnj_1 improves most of the rhizosphere properties, plant growth, nutrient assimilation and yield of soybean and has potential to be promoted as a bioinoculant for soybean production following proper field evaluation. Keywords: Bacillus; plant growth-promoting traits; soil enzyme activity; soybean. Introduction Soybean has now established itself as a major oilseed crop in the rain-fed agro- ecosystems of India. The limited area of 0.03 m ha in 1970 is now scintillating around 10 m ha (Dupare et al, 2010). Despite phenomenal growth in area, it has been a matter of great concern that in spite of high yield achieved in demonstrations under real farm conditions (average 1800 kg ha -1 ), the national productivity still remains around