Endophyte-assisted phytoremediation is considered to be an effective approach for bioremediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil; however, few information is available on Trifolium repens L. and its endophytes to remediate heavy metal-polluted soils. In this study, heavy metal-resistant endophytes were isolated from T. repens growing in mining smelter and identified by BIOLOG system. The isolate was also evaluated for promoting plant growth in heavy metal-contaminated soils in pot experiments. A total of eight Cd2+-resistant endophytes were isolated and these isolates preferred to grow on L-aspartic acid and α-D-glucose. All the isolates had at least two plant growth-promoting properties including siderophore production, phosphate solubilization activity, indole acetic acid (IAA) production, and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase activity. Strain RE02, identified as Pseudomonas putida by Biolog system, showed the highest Cd tolerance and could reduce Cd concentration from 20 to 1.84 mg L-1 in about 49 h in liquid medium, amounting to about 90.8%. Among the five endophytes which have positive effect on the growth of T. repens, RE02, whose IAA production ability was 7.06 mg L-1 and phosphate solubilization was 134.76 mg L-1, could improve T. repens root and shoot biomass by 25.9% and 37.7% in cadmium-contained soil, respectively. Our research may provide a new microbial-enhanced phytoremediation of heavy metal-polluted soils and improve the remediation efficiency.
Keywords: Cadmium absorption; Cadmium contamination; Endophyte; Endophyte-assisted phytoremediation; Plant growth–promoting; T. repens.