Azospirillum brasilense and cytidine as combination treatment to enhance drought resilience of peas

In drought-stressed peas, combining Azospirillum brasilense Sp7 with cytidine (ACyt) increased drought tolerance by 68.9% versus inoculant alone (A).

• Why it matters: The work addresses how to improve pea drought resistance by testing whether specific seed exudate cues can strengthen plant–microbe performance under water limitation.
• What they did: Peas were treated with Sp7 plus either cytidine (ACyt) or total pea seedling exudate (AEx), then phenotyped under drought and analyzed by 16S rDNA for rhizosphere changes.
• The result: ACyt drought plants had 30.7% higher dry shoot weight and 21.6% better drought recovery, with inoculant abundance 163% higher and Azospirillum abundance 954% higher than NB drought.