Drought has is becoming increasingly serious abiotic stress that influences plant growth. Endophytes are non-pathogenic plant-associated bacteria that can play an important role in conferring plant resistance to drought stress. In this study, drought stress resulted in the evident breakdown of the chloroplast membrane system in leaf cells, whereas Bacillus pumilus inoculation improved the integrity of chloroplast and mitochondria cell structure. Thus chlorophyll content, photosynthetic parameters and water use efficiency increased. The inoculation of endophytes alleviated the inhibitory effect of drought stress on Glycyrrhiza uralensis growth. We concluded that B. pumilus inoculation enhanced the growth and drought tolerance of G. uralensis through the protection of chloroplast submicroscopic structure, and thus increased chlorophyll content, efficient photosynthetic rate, and improved water state.

干旱已经变得越来越严重，影响植物生长的非生物胁迫。内生细菌是非病原性的植物相关细菌，在赋予植物抗旱性方面可以发挥重要作用。在这项研究中，干旱胁迫导致叶细胞中叶绿体膜系统的明显破坏，而短小芽孢杆菌的接种改善了叶绿体的完整性和线粒体细胞结构。因此增加了叶绿素含量，光合参数和水分利用效率。接种内生菌减轻了干旱胁迫对甘草生长的抑制作用。我们得出的结论是，接种短小芽孢杆菌可增强G. uralensis的生长和耐旱性 通过保护叶绿体亚显微结构，从而增加叶绿素含量，有效的光合作用率和改善水状态。