*3.9. Antimetabolite Assay on Wheat*

There were three strains in the whole lot, which significantly reduced the dry matter, shoot length, root length, and germination rate of wheat from 23.4 to 34%, 21.0 to 38.5%, 27.2 to 52.8%, and 8.3 to 10.4%, respectively (Figure 5, Table 5). These three strains were ESO-11, W28, and T18. Two strains (T75 and T12) reduced the dry matter (23.4 and 26.6%), root length (24.8 and 50.1%), and shoot length (18.9 and 35.5%) of the crop. However, there were six strains, which significantly increased the dry matter, shoot length, root length, and germination rate of wheat from 24.5 to 47.9%, 14.6 to 29.7%, 19.4 to 37.7%, and 12.5 to 18.8%, respectively. These strains were T23, 7O0, 2O0, L9, T24, and T19. The strains L6, O010, and B11 caused an increment in dry matter of the crop up to 13.8, 12.8, and 27.7% than control, respectively. The strains T38 and T31 caused a significant increase in shoot length of the crop up to 18.9 and 18.7% than control, respectively. The strain T42, however, increased the germination rate of the crop up to 8.3%. The other strains remained ineffective on the growth of the seedlings of wheat.

**Figure 5.** The pictorial view of seedlings of wheat growing on water agar in agar bioassay.


**Table 5.** The effect of presumed allelopathic bacteria on the germination and seedling growth of wheat. Values sharing the same letter(s) in a column do not differ significantly from each other at *p* < 0.05. Values in a column indicate mean ± standard error.
