ASBTRACT

The aims of this research work is to isolate and identify phosphate solubilizing Bacillus from soil. Soil samples were collected and evaluated for phosphate solubilizing Bacillus in piskovskaya agar plates. A total of eight (8) phosphate solubilizing Bacillus colonies were isolated from the rhizosphere soils on pikovskaya agar (PVK) medium containing tricalcium phosphate. Out of the 8 bacterial isolates three showed clear halo zones around the colony. Phosphate solubilizing index (PSI) of each isolate was calculated. The three isolates include Bacillus species, streptomyces species and Lysini bacillus. From the results it was revealed that isolate Lysini bacillus had the highest phosphate solubilizing ability with a PSI value of 4.00 followed by Lysini bacillus (3.60) while the lowest was found in Streptomyces with 3.42. The halo zone of inhibition was found in Bacillus species with 13.0mm while the lowest was found in Lysini bacillus. from the result also it was shown that Streptomyces spp has phosphate solubilizing efficiency (μg/ml) in Pikovskaya broth. Eight phosphate solubilizing actinomycete isolates were identified on the basis of colony characteristics, microscopic observation and biochemical test. It is clear from the present study that the rhizosphere actionomycete are efficient in solubilization of phosphate in soil by producing organic acids. The strain M6 belongings to genera Bacillus spp showed significant potential in solubilizing the phosphate may be due to its capability to produce high amount of organic acids which release phosphate to soil solution from phosphate bearing minerals. The release of phosphate from the muscovite mica increased with the inoculation period of specific strain of streptomycete and Bacillus. As the strains of M2 and M6 gave very good results, they can be now tested on the field to rate its performance as biofertilizer for the particular location.