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Effect of inoculation with Bacillus megaterium mutants on growth, Phosphorous and Iron uptake by tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) in calcareous soils

Research Authors
Mohamed, H.M and Ebaid M. A. Ibrahim
Research Abstract

Bacillus megaterium mutants selected after NTG treatments were evaluated for their efficiency in improving growth, p-uptake and Fe-uptake by tomato in greenhouse. Only five mutants out 1000 colonies were found to solubilize phosphates more than wild type strain on the basis of the solubilization index on Pikovskyaya's solid medium. They designed as M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and their solubilization index were 2.56, 2.42, 2.28, 2.49 and 2.31, respectively. The highest phosphate solubilization index was recorded by mutant strain M1 compared with the wild type strain (2.13). The results show that all tested strains produced; in their cultures; organic substances that chelated iron in the calcareous soil. In greenhouse experiment the results showed that inoculation of tomato cultivar Super marmand with wild strain or mutant M1 with or without the addition of rock phosphate had a significant effect on shoot and root dry weights, p-uptake and Fe-uptake in shoot compared with uninoculated treatment (control), or amended with rock phosphate alone. Similar results were recorded with Burchard cultivar, but in general, the cultivar Super marmand was more responsive to wild type and mutant M1 inoculation than the cultivar Burchard. Application of both mutant and rock phosphate resulted in the highest availability of P and Fe in the soil, resulted in increases about 26 % in P and 36 % in Fe as compared to control

Research Department
Research Journal
International journal of Soil Science
Research Publisher
NULL
Research Rank
1
Research Vol
6 (3)
Research Website
NULL
Research Year
2011
Research Pages
176-187