Komal Mumtaz

Komal Mumtaz

Auto-generated profile, based on publicly available information

Komal Mumtaz

Department of Botany, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi 46300, Pakistan

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

7Years (2020-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
26 October 2020 in Sustainability
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
NINoshin Ilyas
Noshin Ilyas
KMKomal Mumtaz
Komal Mumtaz
NANosheen Akhtar
Nosheen Akhtar
HYHumaira Yasmin
Humaira Yasmin
R. Z. SayyedR. Z. Sayyed
R. Z. Sayyed
ZAZeshan Ali
Zeshan Ali
This research was designed to elucidate the role of exopolysaccharides (EPS) producing bacterial strains for the amelioration of drought stress in wheat. Bacterial strains were isolated from a farmer’s field in the arid region of Pakistan. Out of 24 isolated stains, two bacterial strains, Bacillus subtilis (Accession No. MT742976) and Azospirillum brasilense (Accession No. MT742977) were selected, based on their ability to produce EPS and withstand drought stress. Both bacterial strains produced a good amount of EPS and osmolytes and exhibited drought tolerance individually, however, a combination of these strains produced higher amounts of EPS (sugar 6976 µg/g, 731.5 µg/g protein, and 1.1 mg/g uronic acid) and osmolytes (proline 4.4 µg/mg and sugar 79 µg/mg) and significantly changed the level of stress-induced phytohormones (61%, 49% and 30% decrease in Indole Acetic Acid (IAA), Gibberellic Acid (GA), and Cytokinin (CK)) respectively under stress, but an increase of 27.3% in Abscisic acid (ABA) concentration was observed. When inoculated, the combination of these strains improved seed germination, seedling vigor index, and promptness index by 18.2%, 23.7%, and 61.5% respectively under osmotic stress (20% polyethylene glycol, PEG6000). They also promoted plant growth in a pot experiment with an increase of 42.9%, 29.8%, and 33.7% in shoot length, root length, and leaf area, respectively. Physiological attributes of plants were also improved by bacterial inoculation showing an increase of 39.8%, 61.5%, and 45% in chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoid content respectively, as compared to control. Inoculations of bacterial strains also increased the production of osmolytes such asproline, amino acid, sugar, and protein by 30%, 23%, 68%, and 21.7% respectively. Co-inoculation of these strains enhanced the production of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) by 35.1%, catalase (CAT) by 77.4%, and peroxidase (POD) by 40.7%. Findings of the present research demonstrated that EPS, osmolyte, stress hormones, and antioxidant enzyme-producing bacterial strains impart drought tolerance in wheat and improve its growth, morphological attributes, physiological parameters, osmolytes production, and increase antioxidant enzymes.