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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1551465
This article is part of the Research Topic Mineral Solubilizing Microorganisms (MSM) and Their Applications in Nutrient Bioavailability, Bioweathering and Bioremediation, Vol III View all 11 articles
PGPR and Nutrient Consortia Promoted Cotton Growth, Antioxidant Enzymes, and Mineral Uptake by Suppressing Sooty Mold in Arid Climate
Provisionally accepted
Muhammad Luqman 1
Maqshoof Ahmad 1*
Abubakar Dar 1
Azhar Hussain 1
Usman Zulfiqar 2
Muhammad Zahid Mumtaz 3 Adnan Mustafa 4 Abd El-Zaher M.A Mustafa 5 Mohamed S Elshikh 5- 1 Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
- 2 Department of Agronomy, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan
- 3 Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
- 4 South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 5 King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plays a vital role in Pakistan's economy, providing significant employment opportunities and supporting the country's textile industry. However, cotton productivity is severely impacted by pests and diseases, such as black spots caused by sooty mold, posing critical challenges to sustainable agriculture. This study investigates a novel integration of plant growthpromoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) with recommended NPK fertilizers and micronutrients to enhance cotton growth, yield, disease resistance, and post-harvest soil properties. A consortium of Bacillus megaterium (ZR19), Paenibacillus polymyxa (IA7), and Bacillus sp. (IA16) were evaluated under six treatments: control (T1), PGPR (T2), recommended NPK (T3), recommended NPK + PGPR (T4) , recommended NPK + micronutrients (T5), and recommended NPK + micronutrients + PGPR (T6). The results depicted a significant increase in antioxidant activities of 19% in superoxide dismutase (SOD), 29% peroxidase (POX), 28% peroxidase dismutase (POD), and 14% catalase (CAT) activity under T6 as compared to control. Similarly, growth parameters substantially improved root length (39%), shoot length (19%), and root and shoot biomass by up to 31% and 20%, respectively, under T6. Moreover, the yield attributes like single boll weight and lint percentage were also enhanced by 32 and 13%, respectively, under the integration. In contrast, the PGPR consortium demonstrated considerable biocontrol potential against sooty mold, as disease incidence was reduced by 68% in cotton, the disease index was 75%, and control efficacy reached 75%. The PGPR consortium also substantially improved post-harvest soil biological and chemical properties, including bacterial populations, microbial biomass nitrogen, organic matter, and essential nutrient availability. So, these findings witnessed the dual behavior of the Bacillus and Penibecillus strains with balanced nutrition and can lead us to the development of an effective biopesticide cum biofertilizer for the sustainable production of cotton in arid conditions by combating sooty mold effectively.
Keywords: Sooty mold, Balanced nutrition, PGPR, nutrient uptake, sustainable agriculture
Received: 25 Dec 2024; Accepted: 05 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Luqman, Ahmad, Dar, Hussain, Zulfiqar, Mumtaz, Mustafa, Mustafa and Elshikh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Maqshoof Ahmad, Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
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