Endophytic Cephalotheca sulfurea AGH07 reprograms soybean to higher growth

Gibberellins (GAs) are well known for plant growth promotion. GAs production by fungi has received little attention, although substantial work has been carried out on other aspects of plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF). We investigated GAs production and plant growth-promoting capacity of an endophytic fungus isolated from the roots of soil grown soybean plants. The endophytic fungus is reported as GAs producer and as PGPF for the first time in this study. Nine endophytic isolates were collected from the roots of soybean, and culture filtrates (CFs) obtained from their pure cultures were screened on Waito-C, a dwarf rice cultivar, for the presence of GAs. Of these, seven fungal isolates promoted shoot length as compared to control (distilled water), while one inhibited it. Three fungal isolates were selected on the basis of higher shoot elongation as compared to wild type Gibberella fujikuroi, which was used as positive control. The growth-prompting capacity of selected fungal isolates SB5-1, SB3-2, and SB3-3 was bio-assayed on soybean cv. Hwangkeumkong. Fungal isolate SB5-1 provided maximum plant height (31.6 cm), shoot length (21.1 cm), whole plant fresh biomass (2.41 g), shoot fresh biomass (1.99 g), and leaf area (24.37 cm ²). The CF of isolate SB5-1 was analyzed for the presence of GAs, and it was found that all physiologically active GAs were present (GA ₁, 0.15 ng/ml, GA ₃, 1.2 ng/ml, GA ₄, 7.37 ng/ml, and GA ₇, 3.18 ng/ml) in conjunction with physiologically inactive GA ₅, GA ₉, GA ₁₅, GA ₁₉, GA ₂₀, and GA ₂₄. The fungal isolate SB5-1 was identified as a new strain of Cephalotheca sulfurea through molecular and phylogenetic approaches.