~ 2938 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2019; 8(3): 2938-2943 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2019; 8(3): 2938-2943 Received: 10-03-2019 Accepted: 12-04-2019 Radheshyam Yadav Department of Biochemistry and Microbial Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India Wusirika Ramakrishna Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Microbial Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India Correspondence Wusirika Ramakrishna Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Microbial Sciences, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India Nutrient enhancement and growth promotion of wheat cultivars by native plant growth promoting bacteria from Punjab state, India Radheshyam Yadav and Wusirika Ramakrishna Abstract Soil bacteria are a rich source for several useful biological attributes. The property of plant growth promotion is one such attribute which has practical applications in agriculture and remediation. Here, we employed bacteria (S2, PC and RA6) isolated from local soil for growth promotion and nutrient enhancement in three wheat cultivars, HD3086, HD2967 and WH1105. One non-local bacterial isolate (CDP13) and a commercial formulation (Symbion - K) were used for comparison. All these bacterial isolates were used alone and in combination with vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM). HD3086 plants inoculated with RA6 gave the best results with reference to shoot and root length and plant weight. The levels of macro and micronutrients estimated using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) showed the same trend with the combination of RA6 and HD3086 displaying the best results. The local plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) characterized for promoting growth in wheat in this study can be used for future studies for biofortification of wheat grains. Keywords: Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, macronutrients, micronutrients, plant growth promoting bacteria, wheat Introduction Wheat is a dominant staple food crop which makes up for 50% of the diet. At present, the world population is around 7 billion people and is predicted to rise to around 9.5 billion by 2050. In just 100 years, world population has increased around fourfold. Global warming has resulted in a significant reduction in food production (IPCC 2014) [13] . Intensive agricultural and farming practices including the use of chemical fertilizers to increase crop productivity had an adverse effect on soil quality, plant health, food safety and soil microbiome (He et al., 2019) [12] . The soil is extensively contaminated with Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni. It is important to remove these contaminants through various remediation approaches from the soil as they could be a potential risk for human, soil and plant health. Plant-associated soil microbial communities influence plant growth, health, productivity and development. These microbes also play an important role in regulating soil fertility, nutrient cycling and maintaining plant diversity (Fitzsimons and Miller, 2010) [11] . The above traits paved way for the use of microbes in agriculture and biotechnological applications. Understanding the molecular mechanism involved in plant-microbe interactions can be employed to harness the beneficial bacteria for agriculture with a direct effect on food security. The use of naturally occurring PGPB in sustainable agriculture has gained importance in the past decade due to their beneficial effects on soil and crop productivity. Our previous studies have shown the utility of selected soil bacteria in enhancing plant growth and regulating biomacromolecules including metabolites in maize, sorghum and foxtail millet (Li and Ramakrishna, 2011; Li et al., 2014; Dhawi et al., 2015; Dhawi et al., 2016; Dhawi et al., 2017; Dhawi et al., 2018) [17, 18, 5-8] . In the present study, the emphasis is on how the native microbial strains isolated from local soil can be utilized for wheat growth and nutrient content. This information can be utilized to deploy these bacteria in the field thereby reducing the extensive use of chemical fertilizers. Materials and Methods Plant growth promoting bacteria and their characterization Six bacterial strains were used in the present study. Two of these bacteria were native and previously collected from three areas of Bathinda region and characterized as Pseudomonas sp. RA6 and Pseudomonas citronellis (PC) based on 16S ribosomal DNA sequence analysis (Adhikary et al., 2019; Accession numbers KM594398 and KM594397) [1] . The third strain is also a native bacterium classified as Serratia marcescens S2 based on DNA sequence analysis