A novel Microbacterium strain SRS2 promotes the growth of Arabidopsis and MicroTom (S. lycopersicum) under normal and salt stress conditions.

Microbacterium strain SRS2 promotes growth and induces salt stress resistance in Arabidopsis and MicroTom in various growth substrates via the induction of the ABA pathway. Soil salinity reduces plant growth and development and thereby decreases the value and productivity of soils. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) have been shown to support plant growth such as in salt stress conditions.

Flemish soils contain rhizobia partners for Northwestern Europe-adapted soybean cultivars.

In Europe, soybean (Glycine max) used for food and feed has to be imported, causing negative socioeconomic and environmental impacts. To increase the local production, breeding generated varieties that grow in colder climates, but the yield using the commercial inoculants is not satisfactory in Belgium because of variable nodulation efficiencies. To look for indigenous nodulating strains possibly adapted to the local environment, we initiated a nodulation trap by growing early-maturing cultivars under natural and greenhouse conditions in 107 garden soils in Flanders.

Plant Growth Promotion Driven by a Novel Strain.

Soil microbial communities hold great potential for sustainable and ecologically compatible agriculture. Although numerous plant-beneficial bacterial strains from a wide range of taxonomic groups have been reported, very little evidence is available on the plant-beneficial role of bacteria from the genus . Here, the mode of action of a strain, designated RHG1, which had originally been identified through a microbial screen for plant growth-promoting (PGP) bacteria in maize (), is investigated in .

Classification of Isolates from the Complex into Phylogenomic Groups Based in Group-Specific Markers.

The complex of species includes plant-associated bacteria with potential biotechnological applications in agriculture and environmental protection. Many of these bacteria can promote plant growth by different means, including modification of plant hormonal balance and biocontrol. The group is currently divided into eight major subgroups in which these properties and many other ecophysiological traits are phylogenetically distributed.