Isolation, Identification and Characterization of Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria from Jhum Field of Mizoram, India

Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important nutrients and its low availability in soil is a limiting factor for the growth and development of plants. In jhum cultivation, there is considerable loss of soil nutrients especially phosphorous (P). Since soil P are an important soil nutrient, the use of native phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) capable of converting the insoluble P to soluble form can serve as biofertilizers to increase the amount of plant-available P. PSB native to jhum and jhum fallow soil were isolated and screened for their phosphatase enzyme and indole compound production. These bacteria are being explored for development as biofertilizers to increase crop production in jhum cultivation as well as faster eco-restoration of jhum fallow. Base on their ability of solubilizing tri-calcium phosphate in Pikovskaya agar medium, a total of 44 PSBs were isolated from the current jhum field and different age fallow. Molecular characterization of 44 bacterial showing phosphate solubilization potential was carried out and a phylogenetic tree was constructed. All isolates showed production of acid phosphatase enzyme and indole-like compounds. Bacterial isolates MZUR22 and MZUR37 were evaluated for their efficacy to alleviate the early growth performance of rice in vitro conditions. The in vitro assessment showed that rice plants treated with PSB isolates showed a positively significant growth performance against other treatments.