Cyanobacterial inoculation elicits plant defense response and enhanced Zn mobilization in maize hybrids

Figures & data

Table 1. ANOVA for plant defense and soil parameters in maize crop, as influenced by cyanobacterial inoculants

Source of variance	df	Mean square
		GRSPs	Polysaccharide	Peroxidase activity		PAL activity		PPO activity
				Shoot	Roots	Roots	Shoots	Roots	Shoots
Replicates	2	4333.36	2.52	0.31	37.48	0.129	0.00028	0.0053	0.00350
A Treatment	4	559062.44 ^**	7011.86 ^**	12.98 ^**	20026.69 ^**	0.236	0.254 ^**	1.52 ^**	0.0102
Error A	8	3512.06	66.54	0.79	139.13	0.384	0.00026	0.023	0.0031
B treatment	10	41918.20 ^**	2040.63 ^**	89.26 ^**	3987.52 ^**	0.408 ^*	0.022 ^**	0.280 ^**	0.0025 ^**
A ^* B	40	24382.00 ^**	1586.65 ^**	107.08 ^**	2670.56 ^**	0.150	0.024 ^**	0.213 ^**	0.0017 ^**
Error B	100	1044.20	59.03	0.71	131.56	0.177	0.00006	0.011	0.00009
Total	164	22974.97	717.32	32.351	1470.42	0.195	0.0136	0.115	0.0010

^* significant at 5%.

^** significant at 1%.

Table 2. ANOVA for plant yield and micronutrient concentration in maize crop

Source of variance	df	Zinc in leaves	Ear height	Yield
Replicates	2	148.41	0.055	31.72
A Treatment	4	4474.67 ^**	54.99	0.51
Error A	8	35.50	22.38	9.53
B treatment	10	504.36 ^**	427.47 ^**	15.89 ^**
A ^* B	40	436.50 ^**	38.68 ^**	1.90
Error B	100	34.54	14.27	1.87
Total	164	270.95	46.63	3.44

^* significant at 5%.

^** significant at 1%.

Table 3. Mean performance of microbial inoculants on the activity of plant defense enzyme and soil parameters in maize crop

Treatment	GRSPs μg g^−1 soil	Polysaccharides mg g^−1 soil	Peroxidase activity IU g^−1 fresh weight		PAL activity IU g^−1 fresh weight		PPO activity IU g^−1 fresh weight
			Shoots	Roots	Roots	Shoots	Roots	Shoots
A1 (Anabaena sp. CW1 + Providencia sp. PW5 formulation)	349.54	200.59	15.21	223.47	0.85	0.23	1.54	0.06
A2 (BF1–4; Anabaena–Nostoc spp. consortial formulation)	341.93	164.97	14.46	156.18	0.66	0.20	1.55	0.07
A3 (Anabaena–Trichoderma-biofilmed formulation)	359.13	171.78	14.91	187.40	0.69	0.31	1.50	0.08
A4 (Anabaena–Azotobacter-biofilmed formulation)	425.65	165.74	16.07	197.96	0.83	0.18	1.47	0.08
A5 Control (uninoculated)	87.67	174.99	15.65	180.11	0.77	0.07	1.03	0.11
CD 5%	33.64	4.63	0.51	6.69	0.35	0.009	0.086	0.032
CV %	10.13	4.37	5.51	6.06	55.33	3.84	7.40	11.86

Table 4. Mean performance of microbial inoculants on plant physiological parameters, plant yield, and Zn in leaves of maize crop

Treatment	Zinc in leaves (μg g^−1)	Ear height (cm)	Yield (tonnes ha^−1)
A1 (Anabaena sp. CW1 + Providencia sp. PW5 formulation)	81.98	38.64	7.00
A2 (BF1–4; Anabaena–Nostoc spp. consortial formulation)	94.97	38.43	7.29
A3 (Anabaena–Trichoderma-biofilmed formulation)	87.90	38.30	7.11
A4 (Anabaena–Azotobacter-biofilmed formulation)	107.01	38.75	7.21
A5 Control (uninoculated)	77.48	35.67	7.01
CD 5%	3.38	2.68	1.75
CV %	6.53	9.95	19.23

Table 5. Comparative performance, in term of top five ranking treatments for all the parameters evaluated

Parameters	Top ranking treatments
	I	II	III	IV	V
Zinc in leaves	A4B8	A4B7	A4B9	A4B10	A2B7
Ear height	A4B4	A3B4	A2B4	A3B9	A2B9
GRSPs	A4B1	A4B8	A1B1	A2B8	A3B5
Polysaccharides	A1B2	A1B4	A1B10	A3B3	A1B1
Peroxidase activity (shoots)	A4B8	A2B9	A1B10	A3B3	A3B4
Peroxidase activity (roots)	A3B4	A4B8	A1B7	A1B6	A4B6
PAL Root	A2B8	A3B3	A1B8	A1B6	A5B1
PAL Shoot	A3B1	A3B6	A3B3	A3B8	A3B7
Yield	A4B1	A3B9	A3B11	A5B6	A1B9

A1, Anabaena sp. – Providencia sp. (CW1 + PW5); A2, Cyanobacterial consortium (BF1- 4); A3, Anabaena sp.–Trichoderma sp. biofilm (An-Tr); A4, Anabaena sp.– Azotobacter sp. biofilm (An-Az), and A5, Control (no inoculation) and hybrids of maize, viz.—B1, HQPM-4; B2, Parkash, B3, HM-4; B4, HQPM-7; B5, HQPM-1; B6, PMH-3; B7, DHM-117; B8, Bio-9681; B9, HM-8; B10, PMH-1; B11, Vivek QPM-9.