The potato (
Plant roots uptake inorganic P is as orthophosphate through non-symbiotic physiological mechanisms; however, through symbiosis with “plant-growth promoting Rhizobacteria” (PGPR), it facilitates, even more, their absorption (Richardson 2001; Richardson et al. 2009). PGPR solubilize P precipitated in the soil by synthesis and secretion of organic acids (malonic, gluconic, acetic, and lactic) either in aerobic or anaerobic metabolic pathways. Then, plant roots absorb the bioavailable orthophosphates (Sashidhar and Podile 2010). PGPR are also producers of plant hormone precursor metabolites and compounds with antagonistic activity to phytopathogens (Wani et al. 2007; Zaidi and Khan 2007; Ahmad et al. 2008).
Nowadays, the isolation of P-solubilizing PGPR is an issue of major interest because of their potential use as biofertilizers, which could reduce the use of agrochemicals that pollute and modify the structure and microbial community of soils (Ingle and Padole 2017). The P solubilization by isolated PGPR strains is evaluated on Pikovskaya agar plates using phosphate tricalcium as the only non-available phosphorus source. After an incubation period, bacterial colonies produce clear halos indicating P solubilization, and their diameter can be measured. Next, the bacterial strains are cultured in a liquid medium to quantify the released orthophosphates (Dawwam et al. 2013; Prathap and Ranjitha 2015).
Having identified the bacterial strain with the high phosphate solubilization (PSB), we hypothesize that the addition of PSB promotes potato plant-growth when cultured under
The objectives of this study were: a) screening of PSB strains, isolated from agricultural soils of potato crops from central Mexico, and b) evaluation of the promotion of the plant growth with the use of a selected PSB strain in the
The PVK agar plates were inoculated with 20 µl of the biomass of each bacterial strain; eight replicates were done for each strain. The diameter of clear phosphate-solubilization halo was measured after eight days of incubation at 28°C. The results were expressed in millimeters (mm).
Fig. 1.
Phosphate solubilization assay, measured by halo formation by four bacterial strains cultured on PVK agar. The lines above each bar indicate standard deviation. The different letters above the bars denote statistical differences (LSD test (

Fig. 2.
Kinetics of the bacterial growth on PVK liquid medium.
a) the bacterial growth measured as optical density at a wavelength of 600 nm, b) the orthophosphates released measured with molybdenum blue method, and c) the acidification evidence (lower pH values) in PVK liquid medium. The lines shown above or below each point indicate the standard deviation.

On day three, during the exponential growth phase, both bacterial strains A2 and A3 solubilized 266 and 350 mg/l orthophosphates (Fig. 2b). The bacterial strains A1 and A4 solubilized 200 and 250 mg/l of orthophosphates, respectively. In this assay, all bacterial strains acidified the PVK liquid medium, but bacterial strains A2 and A3, in particular, acidified the medium with the highest efficiency as pH of the medium was equal to 5 (Fig. 2c).
The orthophosphates solubilization rates in PVK liquid medium were 88 mg P/l * d and 115 mg P/l * d for bacterial strains A2 and A3, respectively. Therefore, bacterial strain A3 was selected because it was able to grow with tricalcium phosphate being the only phosphorus source on both solid and liquid media, and it solubilized orthophosphates to a higher rate than bacterial strain A2.
Fig. 3.
Phylogenetic tree of A3 bacterial strain identified by 16 S rDNA molecular analysis.

Growth evaluation of potato microplants cv. Citlali with different P sources and sucrose concentrations.
Variable | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phosphate (A) | Sucrose g/l (B) | Interaction | |||
KH2PO4 (T0, T1) | Ca3(PO4)2 (T4, T5) | 10 (T1, T5) | 30 (T0, T4) | AB | |
1* | 6.081 ± 0.154¤b | 6.801 ± 0.155a | 6.122 ± 0.153b | 6.760 ± 0.156a | No |
2 | 15.099 ± 0.640NS | 16.180 ± 0.636NS | 14.335 ± 0.632b | 16.944 ± 0.644a | No |
3 | 0.279 ± 0.093NS | 0.334 ± 0.094NS | 0.240 ± 0.0195b | 0.373 ± 0.0198a | Present |
Potato microplants (
Treatments | Stem length (cm) | Root length (cm) | Fresh weight (g) |
---|---|---|---|
Bacterial strain A3 added | 10.043 ± 3.252* | 2.943 ± 1.634* | 0.573 ± 0.296* |
Without added bacterial strain A3 | 5.6 ± 2.026 | 4.297 ± 3.136 | 0.174 ± 0.161 |
An additional response observed in potato microplants inoculated with strain A3 was the overgrowth of adventitious roots compared to non-inoculated plants (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4.
Development of adventitious roots in potato microplants (

In this paper, four out of sixteen bacterial strains from potato crop soil were screened and isolated. These four bacterial strains formed halos as evidence of P solubilization in PVK agar with tricalcium phosphate as non-soluble P source. Strain A3 had the highest halo diameter (20 mm) (Fig. 1). According to Paul and Sinha (2017), the use of PVK agar as a medium for qualitative estimation of P solubilization is considered the first step for screening and isolating PSB. Their paper reported a 13 mm halo diameter with the P-solubilizing strain of
The four bacterial strains were also cultured in PVK liquid medium to confirm and ensure that bacterial strain A3 was the best P solubilizer. The results showed that the P-solubilizing rate of bacterial strain A3 (115 mg P/l * d) was higher than those of A1, A2, and A4 strains. The results reported by Paul and Sinha (2017) showed that the P-solubilizing rate of
After their isolation from the natural environment, the PSB has to grow under in vitro conditions, keep their solubilizing activity, and not be stressed in axenic cultures (Collavino et al. 2010). In this report, strain A3 maintained a high P-solubilization rate in PVK liquid medium, confirming its P-solubilization capacity, and it also acidified the culture medium to a pH of 5. It is well known that medium acidification is due to production and excretion of organic acids (gluconic, citric, lactic, succinic, oxalic, fumaric, acetic, isobutyric, glycolic, 2-ketogluconic, aspartic, and malonic); it is the primary microbial mechanism for solubilization of inorganic P (Rodriguez and Fraga 1999). Acidification modifies precipitation/dissolution equilibrium of P, organic acids sequester the calcium, and then the P is solubilized and becomes bioavailable (Prathap and Ranjitha 2015; Ingle and Padole 2017).
Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene showed that strain A3 is related to
The strain of
Potatoes (
In this work, potato microplants were cultured
A significant increase in stems and fresh weight was observed in potato microplants incubated with PSB strain A3 (Table II); it indicated that tricalcium phosphate was solubilized, and phosphate becomes available for plant growth. The increase in biomass could be attributed to phosphorus released by organic acids produced by PSB (Prieto-Correal et al. 2015). It has been shown that there is a correlation between the solubility of phosphorus and the production of organic acids by PSB (Chen et al. 2006). It has also been reported that, with low phosphate content available, plants can produce organic acids for phosphorus absorption (Wang et al. 2015). However, potato plants only produce succinic acid (Dechassa and Schenk 2004) in low concentration when compared to other crops (Wang et al. 2015). It suggests that phosphorus was made available due to the activity of the phosphate-solubilizing strain A3 and could be absorbed by potato microplants.
Besides, roots in potato microplants inoculated with phosphate-solubilizing strain A3 presented a statistically shorter length than those that were not inoculated (Table II). Various effects on roots have been reported according to the available P content. Ma and coworkers (Ma et al. 2001) found that roots of
In contrast, adventitious roots might increase significantly at low concentrations of available P, as demonstrated in
It suggests that the potato microplant in the presence of tricalcium phosphate and phosphate-solubilizing strain A3 could have caused either: a) a vitrification phenomenon, which is a common tissue culture disorder due to excess of P available (Ziv 1993); it might lead to an increase in microplant weight due to thickening, but this response depended directly on the crop’s characteristics (Casas and Lasa 1986); or b) indole acetic acid production, which is characteristic of PGPR (Banerjee et al. 2010). It could induce lateral or adventitious roots, since a high auxin/cytokinin ratio might result in root formation (Rout 2004).
This investigation’s highlights are: phosphate-solubilizing bacteria occur in the soil, but this environment has high selection pressure; it was necessary to isolate and screen bacterial strains that show phosphate-solubilization activity. It was possible to select one out of four bacterial strains by culturing them on solid and in liquid medium with tricalcium phosphate. After molecular identification by sequencing of 16 S rRNA gene, it was demonstrated that the non-phytopathogenic strain A3 belongs to
Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Potato microplants (Solanum tuberosum L.) cv. Citlali grown for 28 ± 2 d in vitro in presence/absence of PSB strain A3.
Treatments | Stem length (cm) | Root length (cm) | Fresh weight (g) |
---|---|---|---|
Bacterial strain A3 added | 10.043 ± 3.252* | 2.943 ± 1.634* | 0.573 ± 0.296* |
Without added bacterial strain A3 | 5.6 ± 2.026 | 4.297 ± 3.136 | 0.174 ± 0.161 |
Growth evaluation of potato microplants cv. Citlali with different P sources and sucrose concentrations.
Variable | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phosphate (A) | Sucrose g/l (B) | Interaction | |||
KH2PO4 (T0, T1) | Ca3(PO4)2 (T4, T5) | 10 (T1, T5) | 30 (T0, T4) | AB | |
1* | 6.081 ± 0.154¤b | 6.801 ± 0.155a | 6.122 ± 0.153b | 6.760 ± 0.156a | No |
2 | 15.099 ± 0.640NS | 16.180 ± 0.636NS | 14.335 ± 0.632b | 16.944 ± 0.644a | No |
3 | 0.279 ± 0.093NS | 0.334 ± 0.094NS | 0.240 ± 0.0195b | 0.373 ± 0.0198a | Present |