Unlocking the potential of glyphosate-resistant bacterial strains in biodegradation and maize growth

Waqas Mohy-Ud-Din; Feng Chen; Safdar Bashir; Muhammad Javed Akhtar; Hafiz Naeem Asghar; Zia Ur Rahman Farooqi; Usman Zulfiqar; Fasih Ullah Haider; Aneeqa Afzal; Mashael Daghash Alqahtani

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1285566

Unlocking the potential of glyphosate-resistant bacterial strains in biodegradation and maize growth

Front Microbiol. 2023 Dec 20:14:1285566. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1285566. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
² Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.
³ Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Baltimore, MD, United States.
⁴ Department of Agronomy, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)-glycine] is a non-selective herbicide with a broad spectrum activity that is commonly used to control perennial vegetation in agricultural fields. The widespread utilization of glyphosate in agriculture leads to soil, water, and food crop contamination, resulting in human and environmental health consequences. Therefore, it is imperative to devise techniques for enhancing the degradation of glyphosate in soil. Rhizobacteria play a crucial role in degrading organic contaminants. Limited work has been done on exploring the capabilities of indigenously existing glyphosate-degrading rhizobacteria in Pakistani soils. This research attempts to discover whether native bacteria have the glyphosate-degrading ability for a sustainable solution to glyphosate contamination. Therefore, this study explored the potential of 11 native strains isolated from the soil with repeated glyphosate application history and showed resistance against glyphosate at higher concentrations (200 mg kg^-1). Five out of eleven strains outperformed in glyphosate degradation and plant growth promotion. High-pressure liquid chromatography showed that, on average, these five strains degraded 98% glyphosate. In addition, these strains promote maize seed germination index and shoot and root fresh biomass up to 73 and 91%, respectively. Furthermore, inoculation gave an average increase of acid phosphatase (57.97%), alkaline phosphatase (1.76-fold), and dehydrogenase activity (1.75-fold) in glyphosate-contaminated soil. The findings indicated the importance of using indigenous rhizobacteria to degrade glyphosate. Therefore, by maintaining soil health, indigenous soil biodiversity can work effectively for the bioremediation of contaminated soils and sustainable crop production in a world facing food security.

Keywords: biodegradation; contamination; herbicides; organophosphates; rhizobacteria.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. WM-U-D is thankful to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan for providing the International Research Support Initiative Program (IRSIP) (PIN: IRSIP 47 BMS 44) with the opportunity to carry out some parts of the research included in this paper.