Screening of large collections of plant associated bacteria for effective plant growth promotion and colonisation

Abstract

The use of potent and effective live microbial biofertilisers in agricultural has significant potential to reduce the costs of crop production and in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution associated with excessive fertiliser use. Many plant associated bacteria possess plant growth promotion traits. However, when used as plant inoculants these bacteria often do not result in statistically significant plant growth promotion. This paper describes the screening process used to identify a number of endophytic strains with multiple plant growth promotion traits and effective plant colonisation ability in Brassica napus crops.