VEGETOS: Eine internationale Zeitschrift für Pflanzenforschung

Assessment of Rhizobacterial Diversity of Tomato Rhizosphere From South Andaman

Israr Ahmad, Someshwar Bhagat and R C Srivastava

Assessment of Rhizobacterial Diversity of Tomato Rhizosphere From South Andaman

In the present study rhizobacteria isolated from tomato rhizosphere of South Andaman were analysed for their biochemical characters, antagonistic activity test and genetic diversity using molecular tool PCR-RFLP. The biochemical characterization showed most of the isolates as plant growth promoting as depicted by IAA production, siderophore production and phosphate utilisation. However level of these biochemical production significantly varies with in rhizosphere. Antagonistic activity of these isolates were tested against single but one of major fungal plant pathogen i.e. Sclerotium rolfsii by dual culture on PDA plate. Level of antagonism ranges from 13- 47%. PCR-RFLP of 16s rDNA amplified by PA and PH primers shows largely homogenous population distributed randomly at 57% similarity. The 16s rDNA gene sequencing and BLAST similarity search showed that these isolates belongs to genus Bacillus and Pseudomonas. The present study has resulted in the isolation of plant growth promoting and antagonistic Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. isolates that can be utilised for sustainable agriculture production...