## 3 Results  
### Growth Parameters  
Results of the impact of Cd-tolerant, IAA-producing rhizobacterial strains on plant height of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) under Cd-stressed pot conditions showed that Cd-stress has a significant negative effect on plant height when compared to control (Figure 1A). The negative effects of Cd-stress on plant height were minimized due to inoculation with Cd-tolerant, IAA-producing rhizobacterial strains. Under normal conditions, the minimum plant height was observed by the uninoculated plants while the maximum plant height was recorded by the plants inoculated with FN13 that was 13% higher than uninoculated unstressed control plants. All the strains were effective in enhancing the plant height of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) ranging from 8% to 13% but this increase was non-significant when compared with uninoculated plants. The Cd-stressed plants showed 30.1% less plant height than uninoculated plants and these results were statistically significant. Inoculation was also effective in enhancing plant height under Cd-stressed conditions where the increase ranged from 10.2 to 16.5% when compared with uninoculated control plants. Under Cd-stress, the maximum plant height was given by strain FN13. Figure 1: Effects of Cd-tolerant, phytohormone (IAA)-producing rhizobacterial strains on growth parameters ((**A**) plant height; (**B**) root length; (**C**) shoot fresh weight; (**D**) shoot dry weight) of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) under Cd-stress in pot trial; (\(n=3\)): Means with same alphabets do not differ statistically from one another (\(p\leq 0.05\)). From the data regarding root length (Figure 1B), it was observed that Cd-stress significantly decreased the root length of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) plants. Inoculation with Cd-tolerant, IAA-producing rhizobacterial strains improved the root length of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) under normal conditions and Cd-stress in the pot trial. Under Cd-stress, the maximum improvement (33.8%) in root length as compared to respective un-inoculated control plants was observed due to inoculation with rhizobacterial strain FN13. Inoculation was also effective under unstressed conditions where the increase in root length compared with control plants due to inoculation with different rhizobacterial strains ranged from 9.5% to 18.1%. Maximum improvement (18.1%) in root length under unstressed conditions was observed due to inoculation with FN13 followed by FN14. Inoculation with Cd-tolerant, IAA-producing rhizobacterial strains was also effective in enhancing the shoot fresh and dry weight of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) under normal as well as Cd-stressed conditions in pot trial (Figure 1C,D). Under Cd-stress, minimum shoot fresh and dry weight was found in the uninoculated treatment. Maximum improvement in shoot fresh weight (47%) of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) plants was given by the strain FN13 under unstressed conditions while the same strain gave the maximum improvement in shoot dry weight (46.6%) over uninoculated control plants under Cd-stress. Under Cd-stressed conditions, the improvement in shoot dry weight ranged from 16.4% to 46.6%. The effect of inoculation on shoot dry weight was non-significant for all strains under unstressed conditions and Cd-stress except for FN13 under unstressed conditions where significant improvement in shoot dry weight than control was observed. Data regarding the effect of Cd-stress on root fresh weight (Figure 2A), showed a significant decrease than control plants. Under unstressed conditions, 5.95 g plant\({}^{-1}\) root fresh weight was noted that decreased to 4.08 g plant\({}^{-1}\) under Cd-stress. Thus, a decrease of 31.4% over the unstressed control plants was observed due to Cd-stress. Inoculation with Cd-tolerant, IAA-producing rhizobacterial strains diluted the effect of Cd-stress on root fresh weight of _Brassica juncea_ (L.) thus resulted a significant improvement over the uninoculated Cd-stressed control plants.