Isolation and Characterization of Nodule Associated Bacteria from Chickpea and their Potential for Plant Growth Promotion

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is an important legume crop grown under rainfed agriculture in India. It’s economic success relies on symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) with root nodulating bacterium Mesorhizobium ciceri. These bacteria regularly interact with other rhizospheric microorganisms as well as host endophytic microorganisms. The endophytic bacteria reside latently or colonize the plant tissues actively without causing any apparent harm (Samish et al., 1963). Endophytic bacteria, in addition to colonizing roots, shoots, leaves, seeds, and fruits, etc., these are also reported to colonize nodules of legume plants. The nodule endophytes have been isolated from alfalfa, clover, pea, bean, chickpea, soybean and lotus, etc. (Hung and Annapurna, 2004; Muresu et al., 2008; Dudeja et al., 2012), and a great diversity of these has been reported depending on the host genotypes and environmental conditions. The endophytic bacteria mainly belong to the International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 5 (2017) pp. 1992-2004 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com