02738naa a2200313 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001902400520006010000190011224501920013126000090032352017440033265000140207665000170209065000150210765000100212265000130213265300340214565300210217965300090220065300360220970000170224570000200226270000220228270000180230470000190232270000260234177300570236721392552022-01-24       2022    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d7 ahttps://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-022-02759-32DOI1 aRIBEIRO, V. P.  aCo-inoculation with tropical strains of Azospirillum and Bacillus is more efficient than single inoculation for improving plant growth and nutrient uptake in maize.h[electronic resource]  c2022  aUsage of Bacillus and Azospirillum as new eco-friendly microbial consortium inoculants is a promising strategy to increase plant growth and crop yield by improving nutrient availability in agricultural sustainable systems. In this study, we designed a multispecies inoculum containing B. thuringiensis (strain B116), B. subtillis (strain B2084) and Azospirillum sp. (strains A1626 and A2142) to investigate their individual or co-inoculated ability to solubilize and mineralize phosphate, produce indole acetic acid (IAA) and their efect on maize growth promotion in hydroponics and in a non-sterile soil. All strains showed signifcant IAA production, P mineralization (sodium phytate) and Ca?P, Fe?P (tricalcium phosphate and iron phosphate, respectively) solubilization. In hydroponics, co-inoculation with A1626 x A2142, B2084 x A2142, B2084 x A1626 resulted in higher root total length, total surface area, and surface area of roots with diameter between 0 and 1 mm than other treatments with single inoculant, except B2084. In a greenhouse experiment, maize inoculated with the two Azospirillum strains exhibited enhanced shoot dry weight, shoot P and K content, root dry weight, root N and K content and acid and alkaline phosphatase activities than the other treatments. There was a signifcant correlation between soil P and P shoot, alkaline phosphatase and P shoot and between acid phosphatase and root dry weight. It may be concluded that coinoculations are most efective than single inoculants strains, mainly between two selected Azospirillum strains. Thus, they could have synergistic interactions during maize growth, and be useful in the formulation of new inoculants to improve the tropical cropping systems sustainability.  aBactéria  aInoculação  aInoculante  aMilho  aZea Mays  aCombined microbial inoculants  aDual inoculation  aPGPB  aPlant growth-promoting bacteria1 aGOMES, E. A.1 aSOUSA, S. M. de1 aLANA, U. G. de P.1 aCOELHO, A. M.1 aMARRIEL, I. E.1 aOLIVEIRA-PAIVA, C. A.  tArchives of Microbiologygv. 204, article 143, 2022.