biologia plantarum

International journal on Plant Life established by Bohumil Nìmec in 1959

Biologia plantarum 63:536-547, 2019 | DOI: 10.32615/bp.2019.092

Molecular and physiological analysis of drought stress responses in Zea mays treated with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria

I. AHMAD1,5,*, S. ZAIB1, P.C.M.S. ALVES2, D.S. LUTHE3, A. BANO4, S.N. SHAKEEL1,*
1 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan
2 Department of Plant Biotechnology, Universidade Federal de Lavras, 37200-00 Lavras, Brazil
3 College of Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA
4 Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan
5 Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA

Our research intended to appraise the performance of two different Pseudomonas strains on Zea mays L. (cv. B73) under drought stress and non-stress conditions. Plants were inoculated with P. putida KT2440 (Pp) and P. fluorescens (Pf1) followed by sampling at 0, 3rd, and 6th day after imposition of drought stress (DAS). Both strains demonstrated significant improvement in root length, protein content, chlorophyll content, and root and shoot fresh masses as compared to un-inoculated drought stressed plants. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that drought stress responsive genes, i.e., the cold-related dehydrin 410 gene, WRKY18, and major facilitator superfamily were significantly down-regulated by Pf1 and Pp inoculation under drought stress condition on 6 DAS. Similarly, the down-regulated transcript abundance of lipoxygenase genes in inoculated plants on 6 DAS showed the role of Pf1 and Pp in scavenging reactive oxygen species under drought stress conditions. Among the selected jasmonic acid pathway responsive genes, maize protease inhibitor and 12-oxo-phytodienoatereductase 7 (OPR7) also revealed a potential role of these rhizobacteria under drought stress conditions. Seed inoculation of both strains significantly down-regulated the expression of OPR7 gene under stress conditions. Our results advocate the complex growth promotion effects of both selected rhizobacterial strains and amelioration of the drought by modulating the expression of drought stress responsive genes.

Keywords: chlorophyll, gene expression, maize, protein, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas putida.

Received: February 2, 2018; Revised: March 9, 2019; Accepted: March 19, 2019; Published online: July 28, 2019  Show citation

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AHMAD, I., ZAIB, S., ALVES, P.C.M.S., LUTHE, D.S., BANO, A., & SHAKEEL, S.N. (2019). Molecular and physiological analysis of drought stress responses in Zea mays treated with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria. Biologia plantarum, 63, Article 536-547. https://doi.org/10.32615/bp.2019.092
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