World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology 15: 393±395, 1999.

393
Ó 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Short Communication

E€ects of Rhodobacter capsulatus inoculation in combination with graded levels

of nitrogen fertilizer on growth and yield of rice in pots
and lysimeter experiments

M. Elbadry*, H. Gamal-Eldin and Kh. Elbanna

Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum Branch, Cairo University,
63514 Fayoum, Egypt
*Author for correspondence: Fax: 002084334964, E-mail: makramas@main-scc.cairo.eun.eg
Received in revised form 24 September 1998; accepted 9 February 1999

Key words: Biofertilizer, pots and lysimeter experiment, Rhodobacter capsulatus, rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Abstract

A pot and a lysimeter experiment were carried out to study the e€ects of inoculation of the roots of rice seedlings
with R. capsulatus in combination with graded levels of nitrogen (N) fertilizer on growth and yield of the rice variety
Giza 176. Inoculation increased all the measured growth parameters and yield attributes, but the statistically
signi®cant di€erences at all N levels tested were only those for plant dry weight, number of productive tillers, grain
and straw yields. The absolute increases in grain yield of the pot experiment due to inoculation were 0.63, 0.93 and
1.22 ton haÿ1 at 0, 47.6 and 95.2 kg N haÿ1 , respectively. The results suggest that inoculation along with
47.6 kg N haÿ1 can save 50% of the nitrogen fertilizer needed for optimum G176 rice crop. However, inoculation
along with 95.2 kg N haÿ1 can increase grain yield by about 1.2 ton haÿ1 . This is probably the ®rst reported
evidence of a bene®cial e€ect of phototrophic purple nonsulphur bacteria on rice growth and yield under ¯ooded
soil conditions.

Introduction pots and lysimeters was uniformly fertilized with 0.4,

The bene®cial e€ects of inoculation with heterotrophic
N2 -®xing bacteria on plant growth, dry weight, nitrogen
content and yield of rice under ¯ooded soil conditions
have been reported earlier, e.g. Rao et al. (1983), Wa-
tanabe & Lin (1984), Rao et al. (1998). However, al-
though the potential role of the phototrophic purple
nonsulphur bacteria (PPNSB) in the nitrogen nutrition
of low land rice is often recognized (Kobayashi & Ha-
que 1971; Maudinas et al. 1981), data on their actual
contribution to the growth of rice is unknown. The
objectives of the present work are to study the e€ects of
inoculation with R. capsulatus in combination with
graded levels of nitrogen fertilizer on growth and yield
of rice in pots and lysimeter experiments.
Experimental Procedure
Three-week old rice seedlings (Indica/Japonica rice va-
riety Giza 176) were transplanted to well-prepared, fer-
tilized and irrigated pots. Five hills, each of 3 seedlings,
were transplanted in each pot. In the lysimeter experi-
ment, transplanting density was 3 seedlings, planted
20 cm apart in 1 m2 . Before transplanting, soil in all the
3.18 g super phosphate (37.5%) per pot and lysimeter,
respectively. In the nitrogen-fertilized treatments, ni-
trogen as ammonium sulphate (20.5%) was applied in
two splits: 75% basal (one day before transplanting) and
25% at tillering stage (45 days after transplanting). The
experiments were conducted in randomized block design
with ®ve replicates. Bacterial inoculation was done at
transplanting time by dipping the rice seedling for
30 min in a mixture of Rhodobacter capsulatus DSM 155
cell suspension in phosphate bu€er 0.05 M, pH 7.0 and
a 10% (w/v) gum Arabic solution. After transplanting,
the pots and lysimeters were watered with tap water to
keep a 3-cm ¯ood water level from 3 days of trans-
planting until 2 weeks before harvesting. At harvest,
values of growth characters and yield components were
recorded. The e€ect of inoculation of R. capsulatus was
analysed by one way analysis of variance. When signi-
®cant di€erences were found for treatments, comparison
was made by the Duncan multiple range test.
Results and Discussion
In the pot experiment, the rice crop transplanted with
R. capsulatus-inoculated seedlings performed better than
394 M. Elbadry et al.
Table 1. E€ects of Rhodobacter capsulatus inoculation in combination with graded level of nitrogen fertilizer on yield of rice variety Giza 176, in a
pot experiment.

N fertilizer level R. capsulatus Grain yield Straw yield Grain/Straw Harvest index
kg ha)1 (ton ha)1) (ton ha)1) ratio HI***

0 ) 1.91b* 3.86b 0.49 0.33

+ 2.54a (32.8)** 4.78a (23.8) 0.53 0.35
47.6 ) 4.97b 6.87b 0.72 0.42
+ 5.90a (18.7) 7.62a (10.9) 0.77 0.43
95.2 ) 6.17b 8.15b 0.76 0.43
+ 7.39a (19.8) 8.85a (8.6) 0.84 0.46

* Means within each N fertilizer level not followed by a common letter are signi®cantly di€erent at 5% level.
** Values in parentheses indicate % increase over the control.
*** HI = grain yield/above ground total plant biomass (Ladha et al. 1987).

Table 2. E€ects of inoculation with Rhodobacter capsulatus on growth and yield of rice variety Giza 176 in a lysimeter experiment.

Parameter Treatment

47.6 kg N ha)1 47.6 kg N ha)1 95.2 kg N ha)1

+ R. capsulatus

Plant height (cm) 79.8b* 81.3ab 85.1a

Above ground plant dw (ton ha)1) 12.6c 15.57b 16.96a
No. productive tillers (no. plant)1) 3.4b 3.9ab 4.5a
Panicle length (cm) 20.1c 21.4b 22.1a
Panicle weight (g) 2.79c 2.85b 3.01a
No. grain (no. panicle)1) 144.5c 150.2b 157.9a
1000-grain weight (g) 24.90a 22.63a 23.71a
Grain yield (ton ha)1) 5.36b 6.98a 7.67a
Straw weight (ton ha)1) 7.24c 8.59b 9.29a
N% Grain 0.85c 0.91b 0.97a
N% Straw 0.54b 0.59a 0.54b
Grain/Straw ratio 0.74b 0.81a 0.82a
Harvest index 0.42b 0.45a 0.45a

* Means in a row not followed by a common letter are signi®cantly di€erent at 5% level.

that planted with uninoculated seedlings, as revealed by
the height of plants and dry matter production (data not
shown). However, this increase diminished by increasing
the N fertilizer level, and the e€ect was only signi®cant
in the absence of N fertilizer application. Concerning the
yield of grain, it is obvious that a marked and signi®cant
increase was obtained as result of inoculation, irre-
spective of the N fertilizer level applied (Table 1). The
increase in grain yield of the inoculated rice plants over
that of the uninoculated plants could mainly be attrib-
uted to the increase in the number of productive tillers
per plant. Nitrogen content (%) of both grains and
straw increased due to inoculation, and all the di€er-
ences were signi®cant except that for grain N content at
95.2 kg N haÿ1 . To con®rm the results obtained from
the pot experiment, a lysimeter experiment with the
same rice variety (G176) was carried out. The results
clearly indicate that inoculation of rice with R. caps-
ulatus enhanced plant growth and signi®cantly increased
grain yield (Table 2), con®rming those of the pot ex-
periment. The grain yield obtained from the inoculated
plus 47.6 kg N haÿ1 treatments was almost comparable
to that obtained from treatments involving
95.2 kg N haÿ1 , the recommended dosage for the tested
rice variety. On the other hand, inoculation in combi-
nation with 95.2 kg N haÿ1 gave an absolute increase in
the yield of 1.22 ton haÿ1 over that nitrogen level alone.
If these results are reproducible, the ®rst suggests saving
238 kg ammonium sulphate fertilizer per hectare, i.e.
238,000 ton annually on national scale based on a rice
cultivation area of 420,000 ha. The second result sug-
gests increasing about 1.2 ton rice grain yield/ha, i.e.
500,000 ton annually on a national scale.
This is probably the ®rst reported evidence of a ben-
e®cial e€ect of inoculation with a phototrophic purple
nonsulphur bacterium, R. capsulatus on rice growth and
yield under ¯ooded soil conditions. However, more data
and trials are needed before we can recommend R.
capsulatus inoculation as a routine agronomic practice
in rice cultivation. At any rate, decisive conclusions
concerning the above mentioned theoretical calculations
could be obtained from ®eld yield experiments which are
currently undertaken and will be published later on.
References
Kobayashi, M. & Haque, M. 1971 Contribution to nitrogen ®xation
and soil fertility by photosynthetic bacteria. Plant and Soil (Spl vol),
443±456.