Alleviation of cadmium stress in rice by inoculation of Bacillus cereus

Zahra Jabeen; Faiza Irshad; Ayesha Habib; Nazim Hussain; Muhammad Sajjad; Saqib Mumtaz; Sidra Rehman; Waseem Haider; Muhammad Nadeem Hassan

doi:10.7717/peerj.13131

Alleviation of cadmium stress in rice by inoculation of Bacillus cereus

PeerJ. 2022 May 2:10:e13131. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13131. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zahra Jabeen¹, Faiza Irshad², Ayesha Habib¹, Nazim Hussain², Muhammad Sajjad¹, Saqib Mumtaz¹, Sidra Rehman¹, Waseem Haider¹, Muhammad Nadeem Hassan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biosciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan.
² Zhejiang University, Institute of Crop Science, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm, Hangzhou, PR China.

Abstract

Heavy metal resistant bacteria are of great importance because they play a crucial role in bioremediation. In the present study, 11 bacterial strains isolated from industrial waste were screened under different concentrations of cadmium (Cd) (100 µM and 200 µM). Among 11 strains, the Cd tolerant Bacillus cereus (S₆D_1-105) strain was selected for in vitro and in vivo studies. B. cereus was able to solubilize potassium, and phosphate as well as produce protease and siderophores during plate essays. Moreover, we observed the response of hydroponically grown rice plants, inoculated with B. cereus which was able to promote plant growth, by increasing plant biomass, chlorophyll contents, relative water content, different antioxidant enzymatic activity such as catalase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and reducing malondialdehyde content in both roots and leaves of rice plants under Cd stress. Our results showed that the B. cereus can be used as a biofertilizer which might be beneficial for rice cultivation in Cd contaminated soils.

Keywords: Bacillus cereus; Cadmium; PGPR; ROS; Rice.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Antioxidants
Bacillus cereus
Cadmium
Metals, Heavy*
Oryza*

Substances

Cadmium
Metals, Heavy
Antioxidants

Grants and funding

Zahra Jabeen received funding for this work from COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad, Pakistan. Grant No. 6-78/CRGP/CIIT/ISB/17/1087. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.