Identification of Bacterial Isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens siderophore from Rhizosphere of Corn Fields and Evaluation of Iron Absorption by Corn

Iron is one of the most important elements for plant growth and metabolism. Plant growth promoting bacteria such as Pseudomonas fluorescens isolates play an important role in the absorption of iron by plants under iron deficiency by production of microbial siderophore. In this study, 25 bacterial isolates were isolated from corn plants rhizosphere in Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran in 2017. Based on physiological-biochemical and molecular diagnostic methods, by using 16SPSEfluF and 16SPSER specific primers, bacterial isolates were identified as P. fluorescens. Among these isolates, the highest amount of siderophore production was related to the isolate PFD1 and the lowest to the isolate PFD3. Moreover, in the study of iron absorption by corn (Single Cress 704), the highest iron absorption was obtained from PFG5 treatment (283 ± 2/3 ppm) and the lowest from control treatment (7/1 ± 6/107 ppm). Isolate PFG5 showed the highest yield increase on fresh and dry weight of root and aerial parts among treatments. PFG5 isolates could be introduced as an effective isolate in iron deficiency conditions.