Mulberry: Bacterial Endophytes

After preliminary screening, the endophytic isolates were subjected to the growth-promoting traits like indole acetic acid production, phosphorous solubilization, hydrogen cyanide production, ammonia production and siderophore production under in vitro condition. All the isolates were found to produce ammonia, HCN and siderophore. Considering the in vivo test carried out, two isolates namely SB6G4 and LB7V1 were found to perform better by showing the overall increase in growth parameters compared to other isolates. The best performing isolates were identified using 16s rRNA sequencing analysis. Both of the organisms were found as Enterobacter cloacae. One of the strains was isolated from the stem part of G4 variety and another one was in leaf part of V1 variety. The promising aspect of the study is the development of pellet based bio-inoculant formulation for mulberry.