The combined use of a plant growth promoting Bacillus sp. strain and GABA promotes the growth of rice under salt stress by regulating antioxidant enzyme system, enhancing photosynthesis and improving soil enzyme activities.

Salt stress poses a global challenge for agriculture, crop growth, and food production. In this study, a strain of rhizobacteria with both plant growth-promoting (PGP) traits and salt tolerance was isolated. The strain was identified as Bacillus pumilus via 16 S rDNA sequencing and was named B. pumilus JIZ13. This strain had the potential to solubilize phosphates and produce 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid deaminase, siderophores, and indole-3-acetic acid. After 35 days of salt stress exposure, the root length, plant height, dry weight, fresh weight, and relative water content of rice plants inoculated with strain JIZ13 were significantly higher than those without inoculation. Interestingly, the PGP properties of strain JIZ13 were significantly improved by the exogenous addition of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Moreover, GABA also enhanced the growth and development of rice plants under salt stress by providing substrates for the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Furthermore, the synergistic roles of GABA and strain JIZ13 in mitigating the damage caused by salt stress in rice plants was investigated. The results showed that the co-application of GABA and JIZ13 significantly increased photosynthetic efficiency, chlorophyll accumulation, antioxidant levels, levels of osmotic adjustment substances, and biomass of rice under salinity stress. In addition, the activities of urease, protease, invertase, and catalase enzymes in soil significantly improved under the combination of strain JIZ13 and GABA and increased by 39.65%, 36.88%, 70.21%, and 65.23%, respectively, compared to those without rhizobacterial and GABA additions. The enhancement of these four soil enzyme activities might thus improve soil quality and increase root elongation and biomass in rice plants. The results of this study provide the first evidence that PGP-rhizobacterial strain JIZ13 along with GABA can attenuate the negative effects of salt stress in rice plants.