Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important crop that is grown worldwide to supply the world’s expanding food demand. In the current study, the effects of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on soil fertility and rice growth were explored. Rice plants were inoculated to evaluate how AMF fungi and PGPR affect various aspects of soil and plants, implicating abiotic stress tolerances. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design with three replicates under the controlled conditions. Results depicted that the plants that were inoculated with a mixture of AMF and PGPR had better yields and nutritional concentrations, while both AMF and PGPR lowered soil pH and organic matter differently. Similarly, AMF and PGPR treatments significantly increased the amount of N, P, K, and B in the post-harvest soil. The PGPR-inoculated plants had a 10–40% higher buildup of N in their tissues. Similarly, when they were compared with non-infected plants, AMF-inoculated treatments demonstrated a greater N accumulation in the rice tissue. The maximum P content in plant tissues was 0.149% in PGPR5-infected plants, either alone or in combination with AMF. In T12, AMF + PGPR5 inoculated rice plants, the maximum K uptake was 1.98%, which was 54% higher than the control treatment. The sole application of AMF raised K buildup in rice tissues by 38% compared with the control treatment. The improved productivity of plants with AMF and PGPR (especially with PGPR5) was attributed to the increased availability of nutrients in the soil. As a result, rice plant growth, yield, and essential element uptakes were boosted significantly. The present study’s results suggested using the combined application of AMF + PGPR5 for improving the rice yield and for sustaining the soil health.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the highly consumed cereal grain crops in Pakistan. In September 2017, leaf samples of cultivar Basmati-385 showing brown to dark brown spots (5 to 9 mm in diameter...

Conocarpus lancifolius leaves were observed to have typical symptoms of fungal leaf spots in botanical gardens and various nurseries, mainly during the winter and rainy seasons of 2022 and 2023. Leaves of infected plants showed round to irregular grayish-white and dark brownish to black spots with a yellow halo and central whitish color appearance that were variable in size, ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 mm in radius. After processing the samples and purification of the fungus, morphological characteristics such as its color, mycelium pattern, and spore shape were used to identify it as belonging to the genus Alternaria. Following morphological identification pathogenicity test was performed according to Koch’s postulates, proving that the pathogenic fungus Alternaria burnsii was associated with C. lancifolius causing leaf spots. The CTAB method was used to extract DNA to perform molecular characterization and further species-level identification. The fungal DNA was amplified using the ITS and GAPDH genes. Sequencing was done by Macrogen, Korea. A phylogenetic tree was constructed against both genes (ITS and GADPH) by using the sequence of 20 isolates; 19 belong to the Alternaria family and 1 is an outgroup. The suspected isolate with accession no OQ689862, and OQ910482 showed 99.48% and 100% similarity with OP985911 and MN718663, respectively. After submitting sequences to NCBI BanKit, the following accession numbers were assigned against the ITS and GAPDH gene sequences: OQ689862 and OQ910482, respectively. After molecular and morphological characterization, it was determined that Alternaria burnsii was isolated and associated with the leaf spots of the C. lancifolius plant by satisfying Koch’s postulates. According to our research, this is the first report of the leaf spot of C. lancifolius caused by A. burnsii. It is suspected that in the future, C. lancifolius will be infected by other pathogenic microbes. Therefore, to control the disease spread, highly effective management strategies should be adopted.

Spot blotch has become a major devastating disease in wheat. In the current study, Faisalabad-08 was supplemented with various levels of selenium (Se) both in vitro and in greenhouse experiments (CRD, n = 3) to counter the spot blotch pathogen. The results revealed that minimum disease incidence was assessed in the case of T₂ (50 mg L⁻¹). However, maximum plant growth attributes, including plant height (PH), plant fresh weight (PFW), plant dry weight (PDW), leaf surface area (LSA), and root length (RL), were recorded in T₅ (50 mg L⁻¹ + pathogen). Similarly, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, membrane stability index, carotenoid, relative water contents, proline, sugar, flavonoid, total phenolic content, SOD, POD, CAT, PPO, and PAL contents were enhanced in T₅ compared to other tested treatments. However, MDA, an oxidative damage marker, was significantly decreased with T₅. Correlation, PCA, and heatmap analysis suggested that all the attributes were significantly interrelated, except MDA, in defining the crop’s potential to sustain its growth under biotic stress. In crux, foliar Se application (50 mg L⁻¹) effectively mitigates spot blotch through enhanced antioxidant defense and physiological homeostasis. This sustainable approach offers a viable alternative to conventional fungicides for integrated wheat disease management.