Rice (Oryza sativa L.) being the most important crop for human population in Asia region, accounts for 23% of the world’s caloric intake. Due to the changing climatic conditions, the agricultural crops are experiencing vagaries of the weather more frequently leading to yield losses and even crop failure. The objective of this study was to find out a suitable consortium of bacterial inoculants which can make the crop resilient to drought stress. Bacterial isolates from different habitats were characterized for salt tolerance and multiple plant growth promoting traits. Four separate treatments were formulated, with two treatments having individual bacterial strain as PGPR and the rest two having consortia of three bacterial isolates as PGPR. High yielding variety MTU1010 was selected for pot experiments and treated with individual as well as consortium of isolates. Drought was imposed for 10 days to different batch of the rice crop (variety MTU1010) at two stages of crop growth i.e., pre-flowering and flowering stages. Results indicated amelioration of drought stress with higher biomass accumulation, increased grain yield and reversal of stress indicators in plants inoculated with PGPR. The antioxidant enzyme activity of SOD, CAT, and GPOX declined by 24%, 20.5% and 20% in plants treated with bacterial inoculum as compared to un-inoculated control. This study indicates that the plant beneficial microorganisms can be used to induce systematic tolerance to rice plants under drought stress and furthermore, application of consortium of PGPR has better probability to improve the coping capacity of the plants exposed to stress conditions.

中文翻译：

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单株和联合植株生长促进根际细菌对水稻干旱胁迫改善的前瞻性评价（Oryza sativa L.）

水稻（Oryza sativa L.）是亚洲地区人类最重要的作物，占世界热量摄入量的 23%。由于气候条件的变化，农作物更频繁地经历变幻莫测的天气，导致产量损失甚至歉收。本研究的目的是找出一种合适的细菌接种剂联合体，使作物能够抵御干旱胁迫。来自不同栖息地的细菌分离物具有耐盐性和多种植物生长促进特性。配制了四种单独的处理，其中两种处理具有单独的细菌菌株作为 PGPR，其余两种具有三种细菌分离物的聚生体作为 PGPR。选择高产品种 MTU1010 进行盆栽试验，并用单独的和联合的分离株处理。在作物生长的两个阶段，即花前和开花阶段，对不同批次的水稻作物（品种 MTU1010）施加 10 天的干旱。结果表明，在接种 PGPR 的植物中，随着生物量积累的增加、谷物产量的增加和胁迫指标的逆转，干旱胁迫得到改善。与未接种的对照相比，用细菌接种处理的植物中 SOD、CAT 和 GPOX 的抗氧化酶活性下降了 24%、20.5% 和 20%。该研究表明，植物有益微生物可用于诱导水稻在干旱胁迫下的系统耐受性，此外，