Not just passengers, but co-pilots! Non-rhizobial nodule-associated bacteria promote cowpea growth and symbiosis with (brady)rhizobia.

Aims: To isolate and characterize non-rhizobial nodule-associated bacteria (NAB) from cowpea root-nodules regarding their performance of plant-growth-promoting mechanisms and their ability to enhance cowpea growth and symbiosis when co-inoculated with bradyrhizobia.

Methods And Results: Sixteen NAB were isolated, identified, and in vitro evaluated for plant growth promotion traits. The ability to promote cowpea growth was analyzed when co-inoculated with Bradyrhizobium pachyrhizi BR 3262 in sterile and non-sterile substrates.

Elite Bradyrhizobium strains boost biological nitrogen fixation and peanut yield in tropical drylands.

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important crop for the family-based systems in the tropics, mainly in Brazil. In the Brazilian drylands, peanuts are cropped in low technological systems, and cheap and efficient technologies are needed to improve crop yield and sustainability.

Co-inoculation of two symbiotically efficient strains improves cowpea development better than a single bacterium application.

The co-inoculation of with other non-bradyrhizobial strains was already assessed on cowpea, but the co-inoculation of two strains was not tested up to now. This study aimed to evaluate the cowpea growth, N accumulation, and competitiveness of the elite strain BR 3262 when co-inoculated with other efficient from the Brazilian semiarid region. Three potted-plant experiments were carried out.

Screening of plant growth promotion ability among bacteria isolated from field-grown sorghum under different managements in Brazilian drylands.

Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a multipurpose grass cultivated in drylands due to its adaptation to drought. However the characteristics of sorghum-associated bacteria are not known in the Brazilian drylands.