Consumption of heavy metals, especially lead (Pb) contaminated food is a serious threat to human health. Higher Pb uptake by the plant affects the quality, growth and yield of crops. However, inoculation of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) along with a mixture of organic amendments and biochar could be an effective way to overcome the problem of Pb toxicity. That's why current pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of compost mixed biochar (CB) and ACC deaminase producing PGPR on growth and yield of spinach plants under artificially induced Pb toxicity. Six different treatments i.e., control, Alcaligenes faecalis (PGPR1), Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (PGPR2), compost + biochar (CB), PGPR1 + CB and PGPR2 + CB were applied under 250 mg Pb kg-1 soil. Results showed that inoculation of PGPRs (Alcaligenes faecalis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens) alone and along with CB significantly enhanced root fresh (47%) and dry weight (31%), potassium concentration (11%) in the spinach plant. Whereas, CB + Bacillus amyloliquefaciens significantly decreased (43%) the concentration of Pb in the spinach root over control. In conclusion, CB + Bacillus amyloliquefaciens has the potential to mitigate the Pb induced toxicity in the spinach. The obtained result can be further used in the planning and execution of rhizobacteria and compost mixed biochar-based soil amendment.

College of Plant Sciences and Technology Huazhong Agriculture University Wuhan China

Department of Agrochemistry Soil Science Microbiology and Plant Nutrition Faculty of AgriSciences Mendel University in Brno Zemedelska 1 61300 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Agronomy The University of Haripur Haripur 22620 Pakistan

Department of Soil Science Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan 60800 Punjab Pakistan

Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Environmental Protection Brno University of Technology Faculty of Chemistry Purkynova 118 62100 Brno Czech Republic

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Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 8;10(1):17111. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73325-4. PubMed

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