1 Luteibacter rhizovicinus MIMR1 promotes root development in 2 barley (Hordeum vulgare L) under laboratory conditions 3 4 Simone Guglielmettia,*, Roberto Basilicoa, Valentina Tavernitia, Stefania Ariolia, Claudia b c 5 Piagnani , Andrea Bernacchi 6 7 a Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), Division of Food 8 Microbiology and Bioprocessing, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy 9 b Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy 10 c Sacco S.r.l., Cadorago, Italy 11 12 13 14 *Corresponding author: Department of Food, environmental and Nutritional Sciences 15 (DeFENS), Division of Food Microbiology and Bioprocessing, Università degli Studi di Milano, 16 Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy. Tel.: +39 02 50319136. Fax: +39 02 503 19292. E-mail: 17
[email protected] 1 18 Abstract 19 In order to preserve environmental quality, alternative strategies to chemical-intensive agriculture are 20 strongly needed. In this study, we characterized in vitro the potential plant growth promoting (PGP) 21 properties of a gamma-proteobacterium, named MIMR1, originally isolated from apple shoots in 22 micropropagation. The analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence allowed the taxonomic identification of 23 MIMR1 as Luteibacter rhizovicinus. The PGP properties of MIMR1 were compared to Pseudomonas 24 chlororaphis subsp. aurantiaca DSM 19603T, which was selected as a reference PGP bacterium. By 25 means of in vitro experiments, we showed that L. rhizovicinus MIMR1 and P. chlororaphis DSM 19603T 26 have the ability to produce molecules able to chelate ferric ions and solubilize monocalcium phosphate. 27 On the contrary, both strains were apparently unable to solubilize tricalcium phosphate.