Isolation and characterization of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria associated with pea rhizosphere in North Himalayan region

PGPR are naturally occurring soil bacteria which actively colonize plant root and benefit plants by promoting growth. They help in providing atmospheric nitrogen, increase supply of other nutrients, produce plant hormones, enhance other beneficial bacteria or fungi, control bacterial and fungal diseases and help in controlling insect pests. The purpose of this study was to investigate the diversity of bacteria associated with the roots of pea and to screen them for selection of most potential PGPR for application in pea crop. The study reveals the diversity of bacterial isolates from soils under pea cultivation in district Srinagar and Baramulla of J&K. The isolates were characterized morphological and physiologically to categorize and identify them. In all 80 different bacterial isolates were recovered from 16 fields of two districts of J&K. The characteristics of the bacterial isolates were determined using the colony morphology, gram staining, biochemical properties and plant growth promoting activities. On the basis of biochemical characterization, 55 isolates belonged to genus Bacillus, 12 to Pseudomonas, 4 to Micrococcus and 9 to Azotobacter. After screening the best nine isolates PGP1, PGP10, PGP28, PGP40, PGP49, PGP52, PGP62, PGP68 and PGP72 were selected for growth and yield in field conditions using pea as test crop.