Mine land valorization through energy maize production enhanced by the application of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

The use of heavy metals (HM) contaminated soils to grow energy crops can diminish the negative impact of HM in the environment improving land restoration. The effect of two PGPR (B1—Chryseobacterium humi ECP37T and B2—Pseudomonas reactans EDP28) and an AMF (F—Rhizophagus irregularis) on growth, Cd and Zn accumulation, and nutritional status of energy maize plants grown in a soil collected from an area adjacent to a Portuguese mine was assessed in a greenhouse experiment. Both bacterial strains, especially when co-inoculated with the AMF, acted as plant growth-promoting inoculants, increasing root and shoot biomass as well as shoot elongation. Cadmium was not detected in the maize tissues and a decrease in Zn accumulation was observed for all microbial treatments in aboveground and belowground tissues—with inoculation of maize with AMF and strain B2 leading to maximum reductions in Zn shoot and root accumulation of up to 48 and 43 %, respectively. Although microbial single inoculation generally did not increase N and P levels in maize plants, co-inoculation of the PGPR and the AMF improved substantially P accumulation in roots. The DGGE analysis of the bacterial rhizosphere community showed that the samples inoculated with the AMF clustered apart of those without the AMF and the Shannon-Wiener Index (H′) increased over the course of the experiment when both inoculants were present. This work shows the benefits of combined inoculation of AMF and PGPR for the growth energy maize in metal contaminated soils and their potential for the application in phytomanagement strategies.