Isolation and Identification of Ginseng Growth Promoting Bacteria from Korean Ginseng Rhizosphere

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Rhizosphere bacteria interact with plant roots in various ways and significantly affect plant growth and development. Ginseng is a specialty crop with high pharmacological effects and has been cultivated in Korea for a long time. In this study, we aimed to isolate and identify rhizosphere bacteria in ginseng cultivation areas that stimulate growth for sustainable ginseng cultivation. Among 12 strains of bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere of ginseng cultivation areas, two bacteria, Bacillus zanthoxyli strain GGS1 and Paenarthrobacter nicotinovorans strain GGS3, were isolated that showed ginseng growth-promoting effects. Ginseng treated with GGS1 or GGS3 showed a root weight increase of approximately 33% or 35%, respectively. The two bacteria especially promoted the development and growth of lateral roots of ginseng. The number of lateral roots increased approximately 2-fold in both bacterial treatment groups. We predicted that this growth-promoting effect of ginseng was due to indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) produced by GGS1 and GGS3 strains. We confirmed the amount of IAA produced by GGS1 and GGS3 by Salkowski reaction and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In this report, we demonstrated that these two ginseng soil bacteria are promising biofertilizers that can be used for ginseng cultivation.