Soil microbiomes from the groundnut basin of Senegal contain plant growth-promoting bacteria with potential for crop improvement in arid soils

The principal methods to maintain soil fertility in Sahel soils are largely allowing fields to go fallow and manure addition. These methods are not currently sufficient to improve soil fertility. To promote biological amendments, we aimed to understand the plant-growth promoting traits of various soil microbial isolates. The soils collected in different areas in Senegal exhibited a similar eDNA profile of bacteria; the dominant microbes were Firmicutes, followed by Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. Of 17 isolates identified and tested, the vast majority solubilized rock phosphate and a large number grew on culture medium containing 6% salt, but very few degraded starches or hydrolysed carboxymethyl cellulose or produced siderophores. Upon single inoculation, <i>Peribacillus asahii</i> RC16 and <i>Dietzia cinnamea</i> 55 significantly increased pearl millet growth and yield parameters. For cowpea, plant shoot length was significantly increased by <i>Pseudarthrobacter phenanthrenivorans</i> MKAG7 co-inoculated with <i>Bradyrhizobium elkanii</i> 20TpCR5, and nearly all rhizobacteria tested significantly improved cowpea dry weight and pod weight. Additionally, the double inoculation of <i>Dietzia cinnamea</i> 55 and MKAG7 significantly increased shoot length, dry weight, and seed head weight of pearl millet. These isolates are promising inoculants because they are ecologically-friendly, cost-effective, sustainable, and have fewer negative effects on the soil and its inhabitants.