A group from Department of Soil Science, University of Maragheh, Maragheh, Iran, etc. has reported about effects of biofilm forming rhizobacteria isolated from the rhizospheres of native arid grassland plants onto wheat growth.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9283637/
Water deficit is expected to cause serious problems for crops on more than 50% of the earth’s arable lands by 2050. With ongoing global climate change the severity, frequency and duration of drought periods are predicted to further increase. Thus, understanding and improving plant survival as well as growth under restricted water availability is of central significance in contemporary plant science and consequently is a prerequisite for efficient plant production.
The principal idea of this study was to isolate bacteria that promote plant growth under drought stress, support plant nutrition by solubilizing nutrients, promoting plant growth and form biofilms. In order to obtain a diverse collection of root-associated and drought-tolerant bacteria, the bacteria were isolated from roots of five grass species (Gramineae) grown in natural grassland systems on low moisture soils of East Azerbaijan, Iran. Subsequently, the growth promoting abilities of the isolated strains were tested on two wheat cultivars in a pot experiment.
at three levels of water availability and without (B0) or with the rhizobacteria strain 16-1 (B1), strain 38-2 (B2) and, strain 54-1 (B3).
By isolating bacteria from grass rhizospheres in an arid ecosystem and filtering during the collection process for biofilm-forming bacteria with multiple plant growth promoting properties, authors obtained three promising candidate strains for yield improvement of wheat. As expected, the positive influences of these bacteria were evident under moderate and/or severe water stress, suggesting that the hot and dry climate of East Azerbaijan grasslands promotes the evolution of drought tolerant Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria.