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It has been well known that the bacteria of the genus Azotobacter, in addition to the beneficial N(2)-fixing activity, are able to improve plant growth by a number of direct and indirect mechanisms. To identify this potential in indigenous azotobacteria, the efficiency of 17 isolates of Azotobacter from the rhizosphere of wheat and barley plants cultivated in salt- and/or drought-affected soils in Iran were evaluated for their ability to dissolve inorganic and organic phosphates, siderophore secretion, indole acetic acid (IAA) production; and protease, chitinase, and ACC deaminase (ACCD) activities. First, they were biochemically characterized and one isolate (strain) was identified by 16S rDNA sequencing. Eight isolates were designated as Azotobacter vinelandii and the remaining isolates were identified as A. chroococcum. All isolates hydrolyzed the organic and inorganic phosphate compounds and effectively produced IAA. Fifteen isolates produced siderophore, but only one isolate showed protease activity which is being reported for the first time in relation to Azotobacter. None of the 17 isolates was capable of producing ACCD or chitinase. However, polymerase chain reaction amplification of the ACCD coding genes, by the use of the gene-specific primers, indicated that not all contain the ACCD gene. The standard screening methods with slight modifications, especially in the case of ACCD assay, were applied. The results showed that the use of specific screening methods, modified according to bacterial nutritional requirements, are the efficient methods for precise evaluation of the plant growth promoting rhizobacteria activity.

Legume roots in nature are usually colonized with rhizobia and different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species. Light microscopy that visualizes the presence of AMF in roots is not able to differentiate the ratio of each AMF species in the root and nodule tissues in mixed fungal inoculation. The purpose of this study was to characterize the dominant species of mycorrhiza in roots and nodules of plants co-inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobial strains. Glomus intraradices (GI), Glomus mosseae (GM), their mix (GI + GM), and six Mesorhizobium ciceri strains were used to inoculate chickpea. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to assess occupancy of these fungal species in roots and nodules. Results showed that GI molecular ratio and relative density were higher than GM in both roots and nodules. These differences in molecular ratio and density between GI and GM in nodules were three folds higher than roots. The results suggested that M. ciceri strains have different effects on nodulation and mycorrhizal colonization pattern. Plants with bacterial S3 and S1 strains produced the highest root nodulation and higher fungal density in both the roots and nodules.

In addition to the characterized mechanisms responsible for many direct effects of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) on plants, it has been suggested that a number of PGPB contain the enzyme ACC deaminase that catalyzes degradation of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), the immediate precursor of ethylene, into alpha-ketobutyrate and ammonia. As part of an effort to obtain an ACC deaminase encoding gene from a collection of soil samples, only one bacterial isolate, Pseudomonas fluorescens FY32 was capable of growing on ACC as a sole source of nitrogen. The ACC deaminase gene was amplified from the above isolate by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) giving an expected DNA fragment, 1017 bp. Sequence analysis of the fragment showed that it was highly homologous (94% and 98% identities at nucleotide and amino acid levels, respectively) to the previously characterized acdS gene from Pseudomonas sp. 6G5. Furthermore, fusion of the ACC deaminase ORF with lacZ gene resulted in the expression of active enzyme in Escherichia coli. In addition, further analyses revealed that the acdS gene was plasmid-encoded so that a large plasmid (pFY32) with almost 50 kb in size was identified from this bacterium. Furthermore, transfer of pFY32 into E. coli DH5alpha proved its ACC deaminase activity. This result was in accordance with previous reports suggesting horizontal transfer of the acdS gene. However, it needs more investigation to identify whether this pFY32 plasmid has undergone lateral gene transfer during the evolutionary process.