The present study aimed to investigate the potential of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) to improve the salt stress and alleviate its impact on Stevia crop plant under different levels of salt concentration. Two Streptomyces spp. isolated from the rhizosphere of halophytic plants (Cucumis sativus L. and Salicornia europaea L.) have shown potential for plant growth promotion in Stevia plant. The streptomycetes isolates were identified by classical microbiological techniques and partial sequencing of 16S rRNA gene as Streptomyces variabilis (4NC) and S. fradiae (8PK). The results have shown that inoculation of Stevia plant by these isolates has enhanced plant growth parameters under applied salt stress. Moreover, total cellular proteins were extracted from the two Streptomyces isolates and SDS-PAGE technique was conducted. Mass spectrometric analysis has identified unique polypeptide of the elongation factor thermos unstable (EF-Tu) indicating the elevation of ribosomal RNA and ribosomal protein genes transcription. On the same context, alleviation of salt stress in Stevia plants inoculated with the two Streptomyces isolates has potentially promoted the accumulation of the major pronounced RuBisCO large subunit protein band detected approximately at 53 kDa. These results may give novel insights and accretion our understanding of salinity tolerance mechanisms using PGP streptomycetes to develop resistant sugar crops of highly important economic value. This study has presented the integration of microbiological, biochemical, and molecular techniques to evaluate the effect of salt stress and to assess the level of stress amelioration using PGPR on proteostasis of sugar crops in Egypt.
Keywords: Elongation factor; PGPR; Salt stress; Stevia; Streptomyces.