Abstract

Nitrogen plays an enormous role in agriculture. The plant cannot directly fix the atmospheric nitrogen. In biological nitrogen fixation, the nitrogenase enzyme plays a crucial role in bacteria by converting atmospheric nitrogen to the plant-accessible nutrient ammonium. Nitrogen fixation is often the limiting factor for crop and natural ecosystem balance to attain sustainable agriculture. Limited bacterial species have been identified towards nitrogen fixation. Therefore, a paradigm shift requires screening and isolating novel nitrogen-fixing bacteria that might be used as crop inoculants. Hence, the current study focuses on isolating and characterizing most potential free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria from mangrove ecosystems. Enterobacter sp. GG1 was found to have the highest nitrogen-fixing capacity. Moreover, pathogenicity, viability, carrier study, and plant growth-promoting efficacies of Enterobacter sp. GG1 have also been studied. In addition, Enterobacter sp. GG1 affects the growth of the green chili plant’s root and shoot lengths by up to 10.9% and 7.7%, respectively.

Key words: Soil fertility, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, ammonium production, commercial potentiality, sustainable agriculture