Endophytic and rhizospheric bacteria associated with and its potential for plant growth promotion with different phosphate sources.

The genus belongs to the family Poaceae and has several species that are native to Brazil. The Germplasm Bank (GB) of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation comprises approximately 450 accessions from 50 species. Among these accessions, (BGP 308) has economic potential for forage purposes. However, the endophytic and rhizospheric microbial communities within this accession and their ability to promote plant growth remain unknown. The present study aimed to isolate the endophytic and rhizospheric bacteria associated with and to assess their potential for plant growth improvement, so-called plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). For the tests, the ability of nitrogen-fixing bacteria (NFB), phosphate solubilization (PS) and indoleacetic acid (IAA) production were evaluated. A total of 116 endophytic and rhizosphere bacteria were obtained from the isolation. In the tests, 43 (37.00%) of these isolates showed positive NFB, PS, and IAA results. These isolates were identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. The phosphate solubilization index (PSI) ranged from 2 to 3.61, all 43 strains performed biological nitrogen fixation and the IAA production ranged from 12.85 to 431.41 μg ml. Eight of these 43 isolates were evaluated in a greenhouse using caryopsis. The pots were filled with soil prepared with three different phosphate sources and one control without phosphate. After growth, the plants were submitted to morphological, bromatological and chemical determination. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and principal component analysis (PCA). In the test, treatments 105 ( sp.) and 458 ( sp.) were the most significant for the crystalline phosphate source, 109 ( sp.) for the sedimentary phosphate source and, as for the soluble phosphate source most treatments that received bacterial isolates had higher phosphorus content in the dry matter than the uninoculated soluble phosphate control. The 105FCR (crystalline phosphate +  sp.), 109FSE (sedimentary phosphate +  sp.), and 110 FSE (sedimentary phosphate +  sp.) treatments showed the best results for plant growth promotion. This work made it possible to determine the bacterial community associated with (BGP308) and to obtain new potential plant growth-promoting strains.