Brevundimonas diminuta mediated alleviation of arsenic toxicity and plant growth promotion in Oryza sativa L.

• Arsenic tolerant bacterial strain Brevundimonas diminuta (NBRI012) isolated from rice rhizosphere of arsenic contaminated site.
• The bacteria shows high arsenic tolerance and plant growth promoting ability.
• It decreased arsenic accumulation in edible parts of plant.
• It helps in phytostabilization of arsenic and accounted as for arsenic bioremediation.

Arsenic (As), a toxic metalloid adversely affects plant growth in polluted areas. In the present study, we investigated the possibility of improving phytostablization of arsenic through application of new isolated strain Brevundimonas diminuta (NBRI012) in rice plant [Oryza sativa (L.) Var. Sarju 52] at two different concentrations [10 ppm (low toxic) and 50 ppm (high toxic)] of As. The plant growth promoting traits of bacterial strains revealed the inherent ability of siderophores, phosphate solubilisation, indole acetic acid (IAA), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase production which may be associated with increased biomass, chlorophyll and MDA content of rice and thereby promoting plant growth. The study also revealed the As accumulation property of NBRI012 strain which could play an important role in As removal from contaminated soil. Furthermore, NBRI012 inoculation significantly restored the hampered root epidermal and cortical cell growth of rice plant and root hair elimination. Altogether our study highlights the multifarious role of B. diminuta in mediating stress tolerance and modulating translocation of As in edible part of rice plant.