Salt-tolerant bacteria improve crop yields
Monday, October 7, 2013 - 07:30
in Biology & Nature
Uzbek microbiologist Dilfuza Egamberdieva, group leader at the National University of Uzbekistan, at Tashkent, has isolated salt-tolerant bacterial strains that live in salt-degraded soils, where they help the rooting process in plants. After the selection of potentially root-colonizing bacteria, she has tested them in experimental settings on plants' roots, obtaining 10-15% yields increase. She hopes to apply her technique soon, in Uzbekistan, to boost the yield of economically important varieties such as wheat, cotton, tomato and cucumber.