Halotolerant Marine Rhizosphere-Competent Actinobacteria Promote Salicornia bigelovii Growth and Seed Production Using Seawater Irrigation

is a promising halophytic cash crop that grows in seawater of the intertidal zone of the west-north coast of the UAE. This study assess plant growth promoting (PGP) capabilities of halotolerant actinobacteria isolated from rhizosphere of to be used as biological inoculants on seawater-irrigated plants. Under laboratory conditions, a total of 39 actinobacterial strains were isolated, of which 22 were tolerant to high salinity (up to 8% w/v NaCl). These strains were further screened for their abilities to colonize roots ; the most promising ones that produced indole-3-acetic acid, polyamines (PA) or 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase (ACCD) were selected for rhizosphere-competency under naturally competitive environment. Three outstanding rhizosphere-competent isolates, ( ), ( ), and ( ) producing auxins, PA and ACCD, respectively, were investigated individually and as consortium ( / / ) to determine their effects on the performance of in the greenhouse. Individual applications of strains on seawater-irrigated plants significantly enhanced shoot and root dry biomass by 32.3-56.5% and 42.3-71.9%, respectively, in comparison to non-inoculated plants (control). In addition, plants individually treated with , and resulted in 46.1, 60.0, and 69.1% increase in seed yield, respectively, when compared to control plants. Thus, the synergetic combination of strains had greater effects on biomass (62.2 and 77.9% increase in shoot and root dry biomass, respectively) and seed yield (79.7% increase), compared to the control treatment. Our results also showed significant ( < 0.05) increases in the levels of photosynthetic pigments, endogenous auxins and PA, but a reduction in the levels of ACC in tissues of plants inoculated with / / . We conclude that the consortium of isolates was the most effective treatment on growth; thus confirmed by principal component and correlation analyses. To this best of our knowledge, this is the first report about halotolerant rhizosphere-competent PGP actinobacteria thriving in saline soils that can potentially contribute to promoting growth and increasing yield of . These halotolerant actinobacterial strains could potentially be exploited as biofertilizers to sustain crop production in arid coastal areas.