Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 21, 2026

Agroinfiltration and PVX Agroinfection in Potato and Nicotiana benthamiana
Published on: January 3, 2014
Enhancement of plant growth and decontamination of nickel-spiked soil using PGPR
1Department of Microbiology, School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India.
Abstract:
Phytoremediation i.e. the use of plants to adsorb, accumulate or detoxify contaminants is an emerging area of interest. A viable technology needs optimum biomass production in metal contaminated soil. Five strains of microbes were selected after testing their potential as plant growth promoters, on the basis of their phosphate solubilization ability, IAA, siderophore and HCN production and biocontrol potentials. They were examined for growth in synthetic medium supplemented with nickel and their MIC (2 mM) was determined. These isolates were also able to grow and produce siderophores in presence of heavy metals like Ni, Zn and Cd. A positive response of bacterial inoculants was observed in chickpea plants towards toxic effect of nickel present in soil at different concentration (0, 1 and 2 mM). Bacterial inoculants enhanced fresh and dry weight of plants even at 2 mM nickel concentration. Pot experiments indicated that presence of nickel at upto 1 mM enhanced plant growth compared to uninoculated nickel free plants. The accumulation of nickel/plant was just 50% in Pseudomonas inoculated plants as compared to uninoculated plants with 2 mM nickel concentration along with increased biomass. The results suggest the use of these PGPR to enhance plant growth in nickel-spiked land and remediate nickel from contaminated sites.
Related Concept Videos
Bioremediation
The Roles of Bacteria and Fungi in Plant Nutrition
Transgenic Plants
The first-ever transgenic plant was a tobacco plant developed in 1983 that showed resistance against the tobacco mosaic virus. Since then, many transgenic plants have been developed and commercialized for improving the agricultural, ornamental, and horticultural value of a crop plant. Transgenic...
Microbe-Plant Interactions
Microbial Bioremediation of Pesticides

