• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.345-352
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• 2021

BACKGROUND: Salinity is one of the major limiting factors in agriculture that affect the growth and productivity of crops. It is economically difficult to artificially purify the soil affected by salt. Therefore, the use of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) in an effort to reduce stress caused by salt is emerging as a cost-effective and environment-friendly method. In this study, the purpose was to isolate the salt-tolerant bacteria from the rhizosphere soil and identify their ability to promote plant growth under salt stress condition. METHODS AND RESULTS: The isolates KST-1, KST-2, AST-3, and AST-4 that showed plant growth-promoting activity for barley in salt conditions were close to Bacillus cereus (KST-1, KST-2, and AST-4) and Bacillus thuringiensis (AST-3) and showed high salt tolerance up to 7% of additional NaCl to the media. When inoculated to barley, the strains had only minor effect on the length of the barley. However, the concentrations of chlorophyll in the barley leaves were found to be higher from the bacteria-inoculated pots than those from the uninoculated control. In particular, the chlorophyll concentration in Bacillus cereus AST-4 experiment was 5.45 times higher than that of the uninoculated control under the same experimental condition. CONCLUSION(S): The isolated salt-tolerant bacteria were found to influence on chlorophyll concentration of the barley. As represented by the strain AST-4, microbes may suggest a cost-effective and environmentally benign method to alleviate salt stress of crops cultivated in salt-accumulated soils such as reclaimed lands.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.398-407
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• 2021

Using salt-tolerant bacteria to protect plants from salt stress is a promising microbiological treatment strategy for saline-alkali soil improvement. Here, we conducted research on the growth-promoting effect of Brevibacterium frigoritolerans on wheat under salt stress, which has rarely been addressed before. The synergistic effect of B. frigoritolerans combined with representative salt-tolerant bacteria Bacillus velezensis and Bacillus thuringiensis to promote the development of wheat under salt stress was also further studied. Our approach involved two steps: investigation of the plant growth-promoting traits of each strain at six salt stress levels (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10%); examination of the effects of the strains (single or in combination) inoculated on wheat in different salt stress conditions (0, 50, 100, 200, 300, and 400 mM). The experiment of plant growth-promoting traits indicated that among three strains, B. frigoritolerans had the most potential for promoting wheat parameters. In single-strain inoculation, B. frigoritolerans showed the best performance of plant growth promotion. Moreover, a pot experiment proved that the plant growth-promoting potential of co-inoculation with three strains on wheat is better than single-strain inoculation under salt stress condition. Up to now, this is the first report suggesting that B. frigoritolerans has the potential to promote wheat growth under salt stress, especially combined with B. velezensis and B. thuringiensis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.244-244
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• 2017

Soil salinity due to accumulation of salts particularly sodium chloride affects agricultural lands and their vegetation. Generally, rice is a moderately sensitive plant with some cultivars with varying tolerance to salinity. Though there are physiological differences between salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant rice cultivars, both are still affected especially during high salinity and prolonged exposure. This also ultimately affects their indigenous bacterial endophytes particularly those that inhabit the rice seed endosphere. This study investigates the dynamic structure of seed bacterial endophytes of salt-sensitive and tolerant rice cultivars grown in different levels of soil salinity. Endophytic bacterial diversity was studied Terminal-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis. Results revealed a very interesting pattern of diversity and shifts in community structure of bacterial endophytes in the rice seeds. There is a general decrease in diversity for the salt-sensitive rice cultivar, IR29 as soil salinity increases. For the salt-tolerant cultivars, IC32 and IC37, diversity interestingly increased at moderate salinity then decreased at high soil salinity. The patterns of community structure is also strikingly different for the salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant rice cultivars. IR29 has a more even distribution of abundance, but under soil salinity, the community shifted where Curtobacterium, Pantoea, Flavobacterium and Microbacterium become the more dominant bacterial communities. For IC32 and IC37, the dominant bacterial groups under normal stress conditions were also the dominant bacterial groups during salt stress conditions. Their seed bacterial community is dominated by endophytes belonging to Microbacterium, Flavobacterium, Pantoea, Kosakonia and Enterobacter. Stenotrophomonas and Xanthomonas have not changed in terms of abundance under different salinity stress level in the salt-sensitive and salt-tolerant rice cultivars. This study showed that soil salinity greatly influenced the seed bacterial communities of rice seeds irrespective of their physiological tolerance to salinity.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2017

Nine strains of high concentrations of salt-tolerant bacteria were isolated from the rhizosphere and rhizoplane of the halophyte plant Suaeda japonica grown in Gochang Buan tidal flat. The isolated bacteria were classified as genera Vibrio (strains JRS-1, -2, -3, -4, and -5, and JRL-1 and -4) and Bacillus (strains JRL-2 and -3) based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. The optical growth condition for salt concentration was examined on the selected, representative strains. Strain JRS-1 with the closest relative of Vibrio neocaledonicus showed the highest growth rate at the total salt concentration of 6% among the incubation conditions of 3-8% salt concentrations. Strain JRL-2 with the closest relative of Bacillus thuringiensis showed the tendency that growth rate increased with increasing salt concentrations and the maximum growth rate at 7% of the total salt concentration. The isolated bacteria showed salt-resistances to higher salt concentrations than their habitat soils with 3%. In addition, we identified evidences of potentially plant interaction-relevant enzymatic activities, from utilization of some substrates rich in plants, such as triglyceride, ${\rho}$-nitrophenyl-${\alpha}$,$\text\tiny{D}$-glucoside, and ${\rho}$-nitrophenyl-${\beta}$,$\text\tiny{D}$-glucoside.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.648-660
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• 2014

Doenjang, a traditional Korean fermented soybean paste, is made by mixing and ripening meju with high salt brine (approximately 18%). Meju is a naturally fermented soybean block prepared by soaking, steaming, and molding soybean. To understand living bacterial community migration and the roles of bacteria in the manufacturing process of doenjang, the diversity of culturable bacteria in meju and doenjang was examined using media supplemented with NaCl, and some physiological activities of predominant isolates were determined. Bacilli were the major bacteria involved throughout the entire manufacturing process from meju to doenjang; some of these bacteria might be present as spores during the doenjang ripening process. Bacillus siamensis was the most populous species of the genus, and Bacillus licheniformis exhibited sufficient salt tolerance to maintain its growth during doenjang ripening. Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, the major lactic acid bacteria (LAB) identified in this study, did not continue to grow under high NaCl conditions in doenjang. Enterococci and certain species of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) were the predominant acid-producing bacteria in meju fermentation, whereas Tetragenococcus halophilus and CNS were the major acid-producing bacteria in doenjang fermentation. We conclude that bacilli, LAB, and CNS may be the major bacterial groups involved in meju fermentation and that these bacterial communities undergo a shift toward salt-tolerant bacilli, CNS, and T. halophilus during the doenjang fermentation process.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1747-1754
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• 2018

The objective of this study was to evaluate probiotic effects of two Lactobacillus plantarum strains (GBL16 and 17) isolated from black raspberry. Results revealed that the number of GBL16 was gradually decreased as bile salt concentration was increased from 0.3 to 1%. However, GBL17 did not show any difference when GBL17 was applied to 1% bile salt, and it indicates that GBL17 is more tolerant to bile salt than GBL16. GBL17 exhibited higher heat resistance and adhesion ability to Caco-2 cells than GBL16. Regarding gut microbiome, no significant change in the number of total bacteria in intestines of mice after treatment with GBLs was determined. However, the combination of GBL16 and GBL17 significantly increased the number of total bacteria in intestines of mice after they were orally administered. Therefore, the results suggest that both GBL16 and 17 strains could be one of major probiotics that can improve human gut health.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1294-1303
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• 2019

Perchlorate is an anionic pollutant that is very soluble and stable in water. It has been detected not only in soil/ground water but also in surface water, drinking water, food, fish, and crops. Perchlorate inhibits iodine uptake by the thyroid gland and reduces production of thyroid hormones that are primarily responsible for regulation of metabolism. Although various technologies have been developed to remove perchlorate from the environment, biodegradation is the method of choice since it is economical and environmentally friendly. However there is limited information on perchlorate biodegradation in salt environment such as salt water. Therefore this paper reviews biodegradation of perchlorate in salt water and related microorganisms. Most biodegradation research has employed heterotrophic perchlorate removal using organic compounds such as acetate as electron donors. Biodegradation research has focused on perchlorate removal from spent brine generated by ion exchange technology that is primarily employed to clean up perchlorate-contaminated ground water. Continuous removal of perchlorate at up to 10% NaCl was shown when bioreactors were inoculated with enriched salt-tolerant perchlorate-reducing bacteria. However the reactors did not show long-term stable removal of perchlorate. Microorganisms belonging to ${\beta}$- and ${\gamma}$-Proteobacteria were dominant in bioreactors used to remove perchlorate from salt water. This review will help our understanding of perchlorate removal from salt water to develop a decent biotechnology for the process.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.278-284
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• 2007

A novel screening strategy for salt-resistant antimicrobial peptides from a M13 peptide library was developed. Fusion of MSI-344, a magainin derivative and indolicidin to pIII coat proteins did not significantly affect viability of the recombinant phages, which indicated that the pIII could neutralize toxicity of the antimicrobial peptides and therefore it is possible to construct antimicrobial peptide library in Escherichia coli. On the basis of the conserved sequence of ${\alpha}$-helical antimicrobial peptides, a semi-combinatorial peptide library was constructed in which the peptides were displayed by pIII. To remove hemolytic activity from the library, the phages bound to red blood cells were removed, and the subtracted phage library was screened for binding to target bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus under high salt concentrations. The screened peptides showed relatively low antimicrobial activity against the target bacteria. However, antimicrobial activities of the screened peptides P06 and S18 were not affected by the cation concentrations of 150 mM $Na^+$, 2 mM $Mg^{2+}$ and 2 mM $Ca^{2+}$ without significant hemolytic activity. This screening strategy that is based on binding capacity to target cells provides new potential to develop salt-tolerant antimicrobial peptides.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.355-367
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• 2016

Soil salinization refers to the buildup of salts in soil to a level toxic to plants. The major factors that contribute to soil salinity are the quality, the amount and the type of irrigation water used. The presented review discusses the different sources and causes of soil salinity. The effect of soil salinity on biological processes of plants is also discussed in detail. This is followed by a debate on the influence of salt on the nutrient uptake and growth of plants. Salinity decreases the soil osmotic potential and hinders water uptake by the plants. Soil salinity affects the plants K uptake, which plays a critical role in plant metabolism due to the high concentration of soluble sodium ($Na^+$) ions. Visual symptoms that appear in the plants as a result of salinity include stunted plant growth, marginal leaf necrosis and fruit distortions. Different strategies to ameliorate salt stress globally include breeding of salt tolerant cultivars, irrigation to leach excessive salt to improve soil physical and chemical properties. As part of an ecofriendly means to alleviate salt stress and an increasing considerable attention on this area, the review then focuses on the different plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) mediated mechanisms with a special emphasis on ACC deaminase producing bacteria. The various strategies adopted by PGPB to alleviate various stresses in plants include the production of different osmolytes, stress related phytohormones and production of molecules related to stress signaling such as bacterial 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) derivatives. The use of PGPB with ACC deaminase producing trait could be effective in promoting plant growth in agricultural areas affected by different stresses including salt stress. Finally, the review ends with a discussion on the various PGPB activities and the potentiality of facultative halophilic/halotolerant PGPB in alleviating salt stress.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.28-32
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• 2012

In this study, the treatment ability of the wastewater containing perchlorate by non-salt tolerant perchlorate reducing bacterial consortium (N-PRBC) was evaluated in a continuous stirred tank bioreactor (CSTR). To obtain the optimal operating condition the bioreactor was operated with the different wastewater empty bed retention time (EBRT). The treatment performance in the bioreactor could be maintained at 100 $mg-ClO_4{^-}L^{-1}$ up to a EBRT of 3 h, and the removal capacity in the CSTR was about 3.3 times higher than that in a batch operation. With a decrease from 9 h to 2 h in a EBRT, the volumetric perchlorate reduction rate was increased from 11.1 $mg-ClO_4{^-}L^{-1}h^{-1}$ to 50.0 $mg-ClO_4{^-}L^{-1}h^{-1}$, and the specific perchlorate reduction rates were increased from 3.01 $mg-ClO_4{^-}g-DCW^{-1}h^{-1}$. In conclusion, the treatment capacities in a CSTR were much better than those obtained in a batch operation.