Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production in symbiotic and non-symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria and its optimization by Taguchi design.

Production of Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in 35 different symbiotic and non-symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria strains isolated from soil and plant roots was studied and assayed by chromatography and colorimetric methods. These bacteria included Agrobacterium, Paenibacillus, Rhizobium, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Azotobacter. The best general medium and synergism effects of isolates for IAA production were investigated. Effects of different variables containing physical parameters and key media components and optimization of condition for IAA production were performed using the Design of Experiments. Qualitek-4 (W32b) software for automatic design and analysis of the experiments, both based on Taguchi method was used. The results showed that Rhizobium strains, symbiotic, and Paenibacillus non-symbiotic bacteria yielded the highest concentrations of IAA (in the range of 5.23-0.27 and 4.90-0.19 ppm IAA/mg biomass, respectively) and IAA production was increased by synergism effect of them. Yeast Extract Mannitol medium supplemented with L-tryptophan was the best general medium for IAA production. The analysis of experimental data using Taguchi method indicated that nitrogen source is very prominent variable in affecting the yield and mannitol as carbon source, potassium nitrate (1%), and L-tryptophan (3 g/l) as nitrogen sources after 72-h incubation at 30 degrees C were the optimum conditions for production of IAA. 5.89 ppm IAA/mg biomass was produced under these optimal conditions.