Assessment of Bacillus derived indolic components on banana (Musa acuminata)

Abstract

Applying synthetic auxin is an age-old practice to induce in vitro rooting of plants. The poor root system enhances the mortality rate of tissue-cultured plants under in vivo conditions. The inclusion of the microbial auxin within the tissue culture medium may be a natural and potent alternative to synthetic auxin. On this background, the impact of Bacillus subtilis derived indole components as the cell-free extract has been tested on the unrooted and rooted banana plantlets under in vitro and in vivo conditions, respectively. In the present study, bacteria derived indole components were shown to substantially promote in vitro rooting, including the formation of lateral roots in bananas. In the primary hardening, carrier-free microbial treatments were found to be better than the carrier-based microbial treatments to improve various plant physiological growth parameters in bananas. The charcoal-based treatment was found to be better than that of the talcum-based treatment for the improvement of the studied physiological parameters. Hence, these cell-free extract-based microbial approaches may be adopted as a potent alternative to reduce the overall cost of micropropagation and to generate healthy plants as well.