Biochemical characterization of chitinolytic Bacillus isolates from a hypersaline wetland and their biopriming potential for improving wheat germination under salinity stress

Description

Sara Abedini, Shohreh Ariaeenejad, and Azadeh Lohrasbi-Nejad published a 2026 study hunting salt-loving, chitin-eating bacteria in Iran's hypersaline Lipar Pink Wetland as seed treatments to help wheat germinate under salt stress. Salt ruins germination on farmland worldwide. From shrimp shell waste the team extracted chitin, screened forty-five bacterial isolates on it, and kept three strains whose enzyme-rich liquids stayed active across temperatures and acidity. Both living cells and the liquids were tested as seed-priming soaks.

Salt cut untreated germination from about seventy-four percent to about thirty-four percent. Under salt, one strain's liquid given as a three-hour prime lifted germination to roughly seventy-five percent and produced the longest shoots and roots and the strongest seedlings. Two strains belonged to the Bacillus cereus group. A wetland microbe, fed on shell waste, could thus shield a staple crop at its most fragile moment.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13543517