PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

Sheath blight is referred to be a serious soil-borne disease resulting in financial losses towards rice farming. The existing research focused towards examining the potential of Bacillus subtilis strain AK38 (GenBank ID: KY458554. 1) and Pseudomonas fluorescens strain AK18 (GenBank ID: KY458552. 1), isolated from maize (Zea mays L. ) rhizosphere, to regulate sheath blight caused by Rhizoctonia solani in rice (Oryza sativa L. ) as well as to examine their impact on plant development. Biocontrol attributes of selected strains, biofilm examination, root colonisation and gnotobiotic examination had been determined. AK38 and AK18 bacterial strains created biofilm effectively and live in rice rhizosphere even after 30 days of the plantation with 5.2 × 105 and 4.8 × 105 CFU/g of root. The quantity of auxin synthesis was registered 31.2μg ml−1 in the 72 hr of incubation. Additional plant development attributes i.e. siderophore production, phosphate solubilization, HCN production was confirmed positive with regard to each isolate. The statistical study of data shown significant improvement in root and shoot size 95% and 78.4%, respectively, over control. In addition, 77% decline within disease incidence has been demonstrated in vivo trials.