Treatment of plants with PGPR has been reported to promote
root growth and to alter the root architecture (Kloepper, 1992;
Kloepper et al., 2004; Ngumbi, 2011). It has further been argued
that bacterial-induced alterations in root architecture may lead to
an increase in total root surface area, and consequently lead to
improved water and nutrient uptake, with positive effects on plant
growth as a whole (Somers et al., 2004; Timmusk et al., 2014). In a
study with maize, Naseem and Bano (2014) applied strain
Alcaligenes faecalis (AF3) to seeds in growth chamber tests. Three
weeks after planting, drought stressed PGPR treated plants showed
an increase in root length by 10% compared to drought stressed
noninoculated control plants (Table 1). They argued that development
of root system as a result of PGPR treatmentled to an increase
in water uptake which allowed treated plants to tolerate drought
stress. Naveed et al. (2014) reported that maize plants inoculated
with Burkholderia phytofirmans strain PsJN had significantly
increased root biomass by 70 and 58% in Mazurka and Kaleo