Induction of resilience strategies against biochemical deteriorations prompted by severe cadmium stress in sunflower plant when Trichoderma and bacterial inoculation were used as biofertilizers

Abstract

However, strategies of microbe-induced resilience are largely exclusive and divergent. Biofertilizing potential of <i>T. harzianum</i> showed that, owing to its Cd biosorption capability, a resilience strategy was induced <i>via</i> reducing Cd bioavailability to be in the range that turned its effect from toxicity to essentiality posing well-known low-dose stimulation phenomena (hormetic effect), whereas using <i>Azotobacter chroococcum</i> and <i>Bacillus subtilis</i>, owing to their PGP traits, manifested a resilience strategy by neutralizing the potential side effects of Cd toxicity. The synergistic use of fungi and bacteria proved the highest efficiency in imparting sunflower adaptability under Cd stress.