Special Issue Article Open Access

Isolation and characterization of nitrogen fixing bacteria from rhizosphere of date palm soil in United Arab Emirates for the tree & fruit quality enhancement

Abstract

Studies of nitrogen fixing bacteria from date palm rhizosphere soil is important to improve the nitrogen fixation under stress condition. Isolation of nitrogen fixing bacteria will lead to development of new saline tolerant bacteria from the sample date palm soil. Soil lacking in Nitrogen fixing bacteria (NFB) can cause yellowing of the date palm leaves, stunted leaves & low fruit production. Rhizosphere soil were collected from six different locations in UAE and plated on ISM media. Bacterial count from all samples were ranged between 2.25 x 105 – 2.88 x 107 cfu/g. Based on the 16S r RNA gene studies, selected bacterial strains were sequenced and submitted to NCBI. Most of the bacteria identified belongs Bacillus sp and very few other nitrogen fixers, which were again confirmed by nif gene PCR. Based on the obtained results, date palm soil is dominated by spore forming bacteria Bacillus sp. Some of the reports stated that it acts as free nitrogen fixing bacteria and tolerate salinity. In future, screening the best strain of Bacillus sp will improve the soil nitrogen content and tolerate salinity. This will thus improve the quality & yeild of natural fruit size and improve the tree quality for other economic uses. Freedom from conventional fertilizers and hormones, this bacterial strain will be useful for further new bio-fertilizer development of the soil of region of UAE.  

Jannatul Ferdouse
Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenburg, Germany

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