Soil salinity is a major constraint adversely affecting agricultural crops including wheat worldwide. The use of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) to alleviate salt stress in crops has attracted the focus of many researchers due to its safe and eco-friendly nature. The current study aimed to study the genetic potential of high halophilic Bacillus strains, isolated from the rhizosphere in the extreme environment of the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau region of China, to reduce salt stress in wheat plants. The genetic analysis of high halophilic strains, NMCN1, LLCG23, and moderate halophilic stain, FZB42, revealed their key genetic features that play an important role in salt stress, osmotic regulation, signal transduction and membrane transport. Consequently, the expression of predicted salt stress-related genes were upregulated in the halophilic strains upon NaCl treatments 10, 16 and 18%, as compared with control. The halophilic strains also induced a stress response in wheat plants through the regulation of lipid peroxidation, abscisic acid and proline in a very efficient manner. Furthermore, NMCN1 and LLCG23 significantly enhanced wheat growth parameters in terms of physiological traits, i.e., fresh weight 31.2% and 29.7%, dry weight 28.6% and 27.3%, shoot length 34.2% and 31.3% and root length 32.4% and 30.2%, respectively, as compared to control plants under high NaCl concentration (200 mmol). The Bacillus strains NMCN1 and LLCG23 efficiently modulated phytohormones, leading to the substantial enhancement of plant tolerance towards salt stress. Therefore, we concluded that NMCN1 and LLCG23 contain a plethora of genetic features enabling them to combat with salt stress, which could be widely used in different bio-formulations to obtain high crop production in saline conditions.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an essential food crop in terms of consumption as well as production. Aflatoxin exposure has a widespread public health impact in economically developing nations, so there is a need to establish preventive techniques for these high-risk populations. Pre-harvest and post-harvest practices are the two strategies used to control aflatoxin contamination, which include the use of genetically modified crops that show resistance against Aspergillus infection, the use of pesticides, changing the planting and harvesting time of crops, and physical, chemical, and biological methods. In this research, aflatoxin detection and quantification were performed in different wheat varieties to determine quantitative differences in comparison to the European Commission’s limit of 4 ppb aflatoxins in wheat. TLC for qualitative and the ELISA kit method for quantitative analysis of aflatoxins were used. Out of 56 samples, 35 were found contaminated with aflatoxins, while the remaining 21 samples did not show any presence of aflatoxins. Out of the 35 contaminated samples, 20 samples showed aflatoxin contamination within the permissible limit, while the remaining 15 samples showed aflatoxin concentration beyond the permissible level, ranging from 0.49 to 20.56 ppb. After quantification, the nine highly contaminated wheat samples were detoxified using physical, chemical, and biological methods. The efficiency of these methods was assessed, and they showed a significant reduction in aflatoxins of 53–72%, 79–88%, and 80–88%, respectively. In conclusion, the difference in aflatoxin concentration in different wheat varieties could be due to genetic variations. Furthermore, biological treatment could be the method of choice for detoxification of aflatoxins in wheat as it greatly reduced the aflatoxin concentration with no harmful effect on the quality of the grains.

Phosphorus (P) management in wheat grown under saline soil conditions requires a better understanding of how P placement and salt stress affect spatial root distribution, plant agronomic performance, and nutrient utilization. A column culture experiment was conducted with two wheat genotypes, Alice and LX99, five P placements (‘Top Dressed High P’, TopHP; ‘Top Dressed Reduced P’, TopRP; ‘Deep Banded High P’, DeepHP; ‘Deep Banded Reduced P’, DeepRP; and ‘No P added’, −P), and two salt stress levels (‘salt stress’, +S; ‘non-salt stress’, −S) to investigate differences in biomass accumulation, nutrient utilization, and root distribution (0–20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–100 cm) among treatments. Deep P placement under non-salt stress increased root distribution at 20–40 cm soil depth for both genotypes compared to top P placement. P application under salt stress increased root weight at all three soil depths in both genotypes and P accumulation in aboveground plant parts (except for LX99 under TopRP). The highest P utilization efficiency occurred in Alice with TopRP and in LX99 with DeepRP under non-salt and salt stresses. Overall, a coordinated adaptation in allocating biomass between belowground and aboveground plant parts, along with altered nutrient utilization, was necessary to reach a growth compromise in response to P supply changes and salinity. Therefore, genotype, P placement depth, and soil salinity should be considered to improve wheat P utilization efficiency under saline conditions.