Vol. 11, Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Dhanni Devi, SB Gupta, BK Mishra and NP Verma

Abstract:
Zinc is an essential element necessary for plant, humans and microorganisms required in little quantities to compose a complete array of physiological functions. Rhizospheric microbes are known to influence plant growth by various direct and indirect mechanisms and have some additional properties such as multiple metal solubilization. Current investigation aimed to isolate and identify potential zinc solubilizing fungi from arid and semi-arid soils for environment friendly biofertilizer development. Five fungal isolates were Screened out and identified as Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. from arid and semi-arid soil based on zinc solubilization index, morphological studies. Subsequently, fungal isolates having excellent zinc solubilization efficiency were selected by their potential in broth containing insoluble ZnO. Interestingly, isolate DCU-402 (Penicillium spp.) have marked highest zinc solubilization ability followed by DCU-452 (Aspergillus spp.). The maximum, solubilization index (2.5) and the maximum solubilized Zn at 5 Days after inoculation (142 µg mL^-1) were associated with DCU-402 (Penicillium spp.) whereas the maximum solubilized Zn at 15 Days after inoculation (365 µg mL^-1) was associated with DCU-401 (Aspergillus spp.) In addition, there was inverse proportion between the pH and phosphate solubilizing capacities. These excellent properties of isolates suggested that they have a great potential for agricultural utilization as environmentally sound biofertilizer. In this study, phosphate solubilization by filamentous fungi is reported for the first-time in and semi-arid region of India.