Resistance to water deficit during the formation of sugarcane seedlings mediated by interaction with Bacillus sp.

Resumo

Sugarcane is a crop of great global importance, but its production can be greatly affected by water stress normally occurring in growing areas. Currently, several solutions have been proposed to minimize such effects, among them the use of microorganisms that improve the resistance of plants to water stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate the induction of resistance of sugarcane plants to water stress using Bacillus sp. For this, an experiment was performed in controlled greenhouse conditions using billets provided with twenty different varie­ties of sugarcane, treated or not with Bacillus sp. isolates, with 5 replications. The plants were grown for 45 days and, after this period, the following variables were analyzed: dry mass (from top, root and whole plant) and C, N and C/N contents. Analysis of variance, mean tests (Scott-Knott and Tukey, p≤0.05) and a hierarchical analysis was performed by cluster analysis according to the UPGMA method (Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean). The analyses were performed using the software R. The isolate of Bacillus sp. promoted resistance to drought for different varieties of sugarcane, and may be an alternative to mitigate the effects of water stress on some sugarcane varieties.