ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
A Two-Tiered Methodology for the Validation of Promising Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria Isolated from Durum Wheat Rhizosphere
Provisionally accepted
Annalisa d'Amelio
Michele Andrea De SantisLuigia GiuzioDamiana Tozzi
Daniela Campaniello
Angela Racioppo
Maria Rosaria Corbo
Zina Flagella
Antonio Bevilacqua*- University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy
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Plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) are gaining increasing attention as a sustainable tool to support crop performance under environmental and agronomic stress conditions. However, the transition from laboratory to field is a challenge. Six PGPB strains from the rhizosphere of durum wheat were evaluated for their technological characteristics and agronomic performanceperformance, to identify suitable candidates suitable for field conditions in a Mediterranean environment. The strains were studied for their resistance to two commercial fungicides, ability to persist in soil at different temperatures, and their growth over pH and temperature. The strain 23P (Pseudomonas migulae) showed the best overall performance, with the highest resistance to fungicides and viability in soil; in addition, this microorganism enhanced shoot biomass and nitrogen uptake, increasing shoot-to-root ratio and N:P. The results support a selection strategy that includes both technological characterization and agronomic validation with a comprehensive and holistic approach from lab to field.
Keywords: biofertilizer, selection, from lab to field, Persistence, Promoting effects
Received: 17 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 d'Amelio, De Santis, Giuzio, Tozzi, Campaniello, Racioppo, Corbo, Flagella and Bevilacqua. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Antonio Bevilacqua, antonio.bevilacqua@unifg.it
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