Abstract
Plant growth promoting bacteria have been employed as a biotechnological tool for ameliorating the impacts of water deficit
stress on plants. However, endophytic bacteria colonizing within plant tissues could be of great benefit to the crops. In the
present study, forty strains of endophytic bacteria were isolated and tested for their survivability under water deficit conditions.
Twelve bacterial isolates showing the highest potential to survive under water deficit conditions were evaluated for inducing
stress tolerance in chickpea seedlings at different levels of water deficit stress (i.e. -0.04, -0.70 and -1.24 MPa) under
gnotobiotic conditions. Bacterial inoculation with isolates Cs8, Cs10 and Cp7 prominently increased the root length of chickpea
over un-inoculated control. Significantly higher root/shoot dry biomass was observed in response to inoculation with bacterial
isolates Cs8, Cs10, Cp3 and Cp7 as compared to un-inoculated control. Moreover, all the endophytic bacterial isolates were
capable to produce auxins, catalase, oxidase and exopolysaccharides. It is concluded that the endophytic bacteria colonizing
internal tissues of pods and shoot of chickpea have better potential to improved growth and biomass of chickpea seedling under
reduced water conditions.
