Introduction Drought is one of the most important environmental stressors that adversely affects agricultural products, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Using Trichoderma fungus along with biopolymers such as chitosan is one of the ways to reduce drought stress. Trichoderma fungus as PLANT GROWTH-PROMOTING fungus is the most common fungal and soil-modifying species that are able to directly with PLANT roots in the rhizosphere and improve growth as well as biological control of living stresses such as pathogenic fungi and non-living stresses such as drought, salinity and heavy metals. On the other hand, one of the effective ways to protect the PLANT in conditions of low irrigation is the use of anti-transpirants, including the biostimulant of chitosan, which markedly limits transpiration from the PLANT surface. The anti-transipirants action of chitosan can be attributed to the involvement of chitosan in the abscisic acid pathways, which closes the stomata and thus reduces transpiration. Chitosan is readily soluble in water and organic acids. Therefore, it can be used in various methods such as mixing with soil, foliar spraying and impregnation with seeds in agriculture.Material and Methods This research was conducted in a split factorial arrangement based on randomized complete block design. The main plot factor was irrigation interval in three levels (two days as normal irrigation and three and four days as deficit irrigation conditions) and sub-plots were inoculated with T. longibrachiatum at two levels (inoculation and uninoculated control) and chitosan at three levels (0, 0.2 and 0.4 g/L). Each experimental plot consisted of three PLANTing lines two and a half meters long and one meter wide .T. longibrachiatum was obtained from Tabarestan Agricultural Genetics and Biotechnology Research Institute. The first irrigation was done simultaneously with PLANTing basil. Up to one month after sowing the seeds (six to eight leaf stage of PLANTs), the plots were irrigated evenly with tubes and from this stage onwards, irrigation treatments were applied. Pesticides and herbicides were not used during the experiment and weed control was done manually. Chitosan was prepared from Sarina Teb store and prepared in three levels of zero, 0.2 and 0.4 g/l and sprayed in three stages: vegetative, before flowering and 50% flowering.Results and Discussion The results showed that with increasing the irrigation period from two to four days, the morphological traits of basil, such as root length and stem length, leaf dry weight, root, stem and dry matter yield decreased. Also, physiological traits of basil such as carotenoids and chlorophyll meter increased while chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll decreased. Application of 0.2 g/L of chitosan inoculated PLANTs increased chlorophyll b content by 68%. The highest percentage and yield of essential oil in both normal and irrigation deficit conditions were obtained when PLANTs inoculated with Trichoderma and foliary sprayed by chitosan. The highest percentage and yield of essential oil were observed with an average of 0.88 and 42.87% in normal irrigation conditions, application of Trichoderma and zero level of chitosan, respectively. According to the results, increasing the irrigation cycle along with chitosan application and fungal inoculation increased the percentage and yield of essential oil. However, by increasing the irrigation cycle, chitosan alone decreased the percentage and yield of essential oil and only in the three-day irrigation cycle, it increased the percentage of essential oil compared to the control.Conclusion Overall, the findings showed the positive effect of concomitant use of Trichoderma fungus and chitosan on improving the growth of sweet basil and increasing drought resistance.Acknowledgements Thanks and appreciation from the financial support provided by the Department of Agronomy and PLANT Breeding Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and the Natural Resources University of Sari, Iran.

Introduction: Calendula officinalis, the pot marigold, ruddles, common marigold is a PLANT in the genus Calendula of the family Asteraceae. It is probably native to southern Europe. It is also widely naturalised further north in Europe and elsewhere in warm temperate regions of the world. Calendula is applied to the skin to reduce pain and swelling and to treat poorly healing wounds and leg ulcers. It is also applied to the skin for nosebleeds, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, inflammation of the rectum, ear infection, gum disease, peeling lips, diaper rash, vaginal yeast infection, and inflammation of the lining of the eyelid (conjunctivitis). Essential oil of calendula has been used as an insect repellant. One of the major limiting factors for PLANT growth is water availability. Drought affects many aspects of PLANT physiology to reduct PLANT growth and photosynthesis. Mycorrhiza fungi colonize the roots of host PLANTs and perform absorption services for the PLANT. Various studies have demonstrated that PLANTs associated with Mycorrhiza fungi show increased uptake of various materials from the soil, including water, and macro and micronutrients. As a result, VAM fungi improve their host PLANTs’ ability to grow under conditions of drought stress or in mineral deficient soils. The bacteria that can promote PLANT growth, that is, include those that are free-living, those that form specific symbiotic relationships with PLANTs, bacterial endophytes that can colonize some or a portion of a PLANT’ s interior tissues. GROWTH-PROMOTING bacteria may promote PLANT growth directly usually by either facilitating resource acquisition or modulating PLANT hormone levels, or indirectly by decreasing the inhibitory effects of various pathogenic agents on PLANT growth and development, that is, by acting as biocontrol bacteria. Material and methods: This research was carried out in order to investigate the effect of Mycorrhiza fungi and some GROWTH-PROMOTING bacteria on Calendula officinalis var. Pacific beauty orange under drought stress conditions in 2017-2018 in Faculty Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with 4 replications. The first factor was drought stress in two levels (100 and 50% crop capacity) and the second factor was the use of bio fertilizer in 8 levels including: Pseudomonas fluorescens (Ps), 2. Azotobactore chroococcum (Az), 3. Mycorrhizal fungus (M), 4. Ps + M, 5. Az + M, 6 Ps + Az, 7. Az + Ps + M, 8. Control (non-use of bacteria and fungi). At the end of the experiment morphophysiological and biochemical traits of the PLANT were measured. The height and diameter of the flower were measured by digital caliper. Number of flowers, number of leaves and number of lateral branches were counted. shoot and root fresh weight was weighed after the separation of the PLANT from the pot in a laboratory with a digital scale of 0. 001. then PLANTs were ejected from the pot, root length was recorded. The maximum efficiency of the photocysteine II in the PLANT was measured by a fluorometer (FL-OS model) and for measuring chlorophyll index (SPAD-502) using Spad. The relative leaf water content, ion leakage and antioxidant capacity were measured. The statistical analysis of the test data and the comparison of the averages at the probability level of 5% error based on the LSD test was performed using JMP-8 statistical software and drawing charts with Excel 2010 software. Results and disscation: The results showed that drought stress caused a decrease in growth traits in Calendula. So, by decreasing soil capacity from 100 to 50% FC, number of leaves, number of flowers, flower diameter, shoot and root fresh weight, number of lateral branches, Spad and relative leaf water content decreased and Antioxidant capacity increased compared to control treatment. Application of growth stimulating bacteria resulted in improved traits measured in the PLANT under stress and non-stress conditions. Application of Pseudomonas fluorescens alone or in combination with mycorrhizal fungus under stress conditions (50% FC) resulted in improved growth characteristics in Calendula PLANT. In terms of number of leaves, number of flowers, flower diameter, number of lateral stems and Spad, improved by application of Pseudomonas fluorescens alone in soil or its combination with mycorrhizal fungus under stress conditions. PGPR directly affects PLANT growth by facilitating the availability of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and iron. These nutrients are critical to PLANT biochemistry, and without them PLANT growth is limited. While nitrogen, phosphorus and iron may be abundant in the soil, they are often found in a form the PLANT can’ t utilize. PGPR convert those nutrients to the form the PLANT can use. Actually, PGPR can produce PLANT hormones like auxins, gibberellins and cytokinins that stimulate PLANT root and shoot growth in exchange for food sources from the PLANT. Also, Mycorrhiza fungi can help PLANTs to cope with the detrimental effects of soil water defi cit acting, directly or indirectly, on PLANT functionality both above-and belowground. At the levels of both leaves and roots, the osmotic stress usually caused by drought is counteracted by mycorrhizal PLANTs through biochemical changes that mostly include increased biosynthesis of metabolites (mainly proline and sugars) that act as osmolytes. These compounds contribute to the lowering of the osmotic potential, and in turn, of the leaf water potential. Finally, it seams that the use of Pseudomonas fluorescens in soil alone or in combination with mycorrhizal fungi under drought stress conditions can improve PLANT growth and increase PLANT efficiency under drought stress conditions.

Success of the phytoremediation technique depends not only on PLANT species, but also largely on the interactions of PLANT roots with the rhizosphere MICROORGANISMS. These MICROORGANISMS, especially bacteria with PLANT growth promoting traits, can improve efficiency of phytoremediation by helping to proper PLANT establishment, increasing root system growth and, consequently, increasing PLANT growth and enhancing heavy metal uptake. Considering the important role of soil microbial community in increasing the remediation of polluted soil with PLANTs, this research was conducted with the aim of isolating, screening, investigating the traits of cadmium and lead-resistant bacteria and introducing superior isolates. Soil samples were taken from Cd and Pb contaminated soils of the Shahid Tondguyan oil refinery and after measuring some physical and chemical properties, heavy metals resistant MICROORGANISMS were isolated from them. Resistance to cadmium and lead was determined in the isolates, and then the ability of the superior isolates to produce phytohormones of auxin, secretion of growth inhibitor metabolites and solubilization of insoluble inorganic phosphate were evaluated. In this study, thirty MICROORGANISMS were isolated from contaminated soils. After examining the appearance of the colony, its color and margin, as well as the growth rate, at the end, 20 different isolates were selected. 70% of the studied isolates showed a very good growth in culture medium up to a concentration of 8 mM l-1 of lead and cadmium. The results of evaluation of PLANT growth promoting traits in the top 10 isolates in terms of resistance to heavy metals of lead and cadmium showed that all of these isolates had the ability to produce auxins and dissolve insoluble inorganic phosphates. The highest (10. 20 mg l-1) and the lowest (0. 64 mg l-1) auxin production were observed for C4 and C2 isolates, respectively. The average solubility of tricalcium phosphate by isolates was 106. 91 mg l-1. 80% of isolates had the same ability to produce siderophore. The highest rate of production of this metabolite was observed in the isolate C1 with a halo to colony ratio of 23. 3. Among 10 studied isolates, three isolates, K2, K5 and C8, were able to produce hydrogen cyanide, protease and cellulase enzymes...

Background and Objectives: Wheat is one of the most important food crops. In modern agriculture, Due to the increasing human population and the detrimental effects of chemical fertilizer such as environmental pollution and concerns about human health, adapting suitable alternatives like production of bio-fertilizers which have none of these dangerous effects would be necessary. PLANT GROWTH-PROMOTING fungi and bacteria used in bio-fertilizers are the beneficial MICROORGANISMS that can enhance PLANT growth, yield and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses directly or indirectly through a wide variety of mechanisms. Although bio-fertilizers have become more noticeable in recent years, the lack of accurate identification of MICROORGANISMS used in the production of these fertilizers is one of the problems of bio-fertilizers in Iran. Failure to accurate identification of species is due to deficiencies in morphological or biochemical methods in fungi and bacteria. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify of fungal and bacterial isolates molecularly and also to investigate the effect of these isolates alone and in combination with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus on some growth characteristics of the wheat PLANT. Materials and Methods: After the preparation of fungal and bacterial isolates from the Soil and Water Research Institute, which are known as PLANT growth promoting MICROORGANISMS, accurate identification of each isolate was performed based on morphological and molecular methods. Extraction of genomic DNA in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus was done by single-spore method and in other bacterial and fungal isolates by CTAB method. Amplification of 16S rDNA region in bacterial isolates, TEF-1α and ITS1-5. 8S-ITS2 regions in Trichoderma species, ITS1-5. 8S-ITS2 region in Serendipita indica and SSU-ITS1-5. 8S-ITS2-LSU region by nested PCR method in the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus was performed. To investigate the effect of fungal and bacterial isolates alone or in combination with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus in a greenhouse, their effect on wheat growth indices such as PLANT height, shoot and root dry weight, head height and weight and dry weights of seeds were measured. Results: Based on the morphological and molecular investigation, three species of Bacillus including Bacillus velezensis, B. pumilus, and B. subtilis and three species of Trichoderma including Trichoderma atroviride, T. longibrachiatum, and T. harzianum and S. indica and Rhizophagus irregularis were identified. T. harzianum + R. irregularis and T. longibrachiatum showed the maximum dry weight and head weight. T. longibrachiatum + R. irregularis and T. atroviride showed the highest effect on PLANT height. Pots treated with T. harzianum + R. irregularis, T. harzianum, T. atroviride and S. indica + R. irregularis showed the highest weight of seeds compared to control PLANTs. Conclusion: The result showed that the effect of fungal treatments such as T. harzianum + R. irregularis and Trichoderma spp. on growth characteristics of wheat was significant. According to the results of this study, the use of an appropriate combination of inoculants and the preparation of primary formulations for use in farm experiments is proposed to increase the availability of nutrients and improve the growth of wheat PLANTs.