Morphological Responses of Some Pistacia Species to Salinity under the Effect of Pgpr Application

Salinity is one of the major obstacles retarding growth and production in wide range of agricultural crops. Although pistachio is known as saline resistant plant, devising efficient strategies to prevent any risk of yield loses are of high importance. Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) are used as biological agents because of their stress alleviating characteristics resulting from their beneficial effects on plant growth. The aim of this study was to assess of morphological responses to salt-stressed 7 different pistachio seedlings used as rootstock ( Pistacia khinjuk (Type A and Type B), P. atlantica , P. mutica , P. terebinthus and P. vera (Siirt and Kırmızı cultivars) to PGPR treatment. For this purpose, half of the plants were treated by PGPR containing Chlorobium limicola , C. vibrioforme , Nitrosomonas spp., Nitrobacter spp., Pseudomonas vulgaris starins, and then 0, 100, and 200 mM NaCl solutions were applied with irrigation water 2 times per week, and they were repeated 4 times. P. khinjuk -Type B was recognized the most resistant species to salinity stress from morphological aspects. Seedlings morphological traits were affected adversely by increasing salinity level, however, PGPR treatments had a positive effect on the development of Pistacia seedlings in salinity conditions and protected the plants against salt stress. PGPR highly possibly resisted efficiently to the salinity conditions so that it could compensate through establishing symbiosis between Pistacia roots and bacteria.