Global warming and climate change have contributed to the rise of weather extremes. Severe drought and soil salinization increase because of rising temperatures. Economically important crop production and plant growth and development are hindered when facing various abiotic stresses. Plant endophytic bacteria live inside host plants without causing visible harm and can be isolated from surface-sterilized plant tissues. Using plant endophytic bacteria to stimulate plant growth and increase environmental stress tolerance has become an alternative approach besides using the traditional breeding and genetically modifying approaches to select or create new crop types resistant to different environmental stresses. The plant endophytic bacterium, Priestia megaterium (previously known as Bacillus megaterium) strain BP-R2, was isolated from the surface-sterilized root tissues of the salt marsh halophyte Bolboschoenus planiculmis. The bacteria strain BP-R2 showed high tolerance to different sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations and produced the auxin plant hormone, indole acetic acid (IAA), under various tested growth conditions. Inoculation of Arabidopsis and pak choi (Brassica rapa L. R. Chinensis Group) plants with the strain BP-R2 greatly enhanced different growth parameters of the host plants under normal and salt and drought stress conditions compared to that of the mock-inoculated plants. Furthermore, the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content, electrolyte leakage (EL), and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration accumulated less in the BP-R2-inoculated plants than in the mock-inoculated control plants under salt and drought stresses. In summary, the plant endophytic bacterium strain BP-R2 increased host plant growth and stress tolerance to salt and drought conditions.
Keywords: Bacillus megaterium; Priestia megaterium; drought stress; plant endophytic bacteria; salt stress.