ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PLANT GROWTH PROMOTING HALOTOLERANT BACTERIA FROM SALINE RHIZOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENTS

Among the abiotic stress parameters salinity is the major problems to the agriculture in coastal areas. Salinity leads to stunted growthand reduced yields.Bacteria isolated from saline environmentswere physiologically adapted to saline conditions, such tolerant microorganisms provide a means of cultivation of crops in salinity influencedareas. Halotolerant bacteria which have the plant growth promoting activity, plant growth promoting bacteria(PGPB) may be used to mitigate the effect of salinity in the field. Soil samples were collected from the high saline environments from Visakhapatnam and Kakinada coast. A total 7 morphologically different bacteria were isolated, among them isolate-07 was found to be high salt tolerant and plant growth promoting rich bacteria. All bacteria were biochemically characterized and isolate-07 was characterized by 16s rRNA gene sequencing and confirmed as Bacillus megaterium.