This study examined the impact of two bacterial strains, H05E-12 and H05R- 04, on alleviating non-irrigation-induced stress and its subsequent effects on the fruit productivity of sweet pumpkin plants. When subjected to non-irrigation-induced stress, the lipid peroxidation, proline, total phenol, and total soluble sugar content significantly decreased in plants treated with either H05E-12 or H05R-04 compared to the control. In a greenhouse experiment under non-irrigated conditions, H05E-12-treated plants exhibited higher stomatal conductance than the control, although there was no significant change in the soil plant analysis development (SPAD) value due to treatment. Upon re-watering, an increase in fruit diameter was observed in H05E-12-treated plants, and the L-ascorbic acid content in the fruit also showed a significant increase compared to the control. The H05E-12 strain was identified as Kushneria konosiri. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report detailing the beneficial effects of K. konosiri on the alleviation of non-irrigation-induced stress and the promotion of plant growth in sweet pumpkin plants.

1. INTRODUCTION
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
3. RESULTS
    3.1. Alleviative activity of the bacterialstrains against non-irrigated stress insweet pumpkin plants
    3.2. Effect of bacterial treatments onproductivity of sweet pumpkin
    3.3. Identification of bacterial strains thatalleviated non-irrigated stress in sweetpumpkin
4. DISCUSSION
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Declaration of Competing Interest
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES

• Sang Tae Kim(Division of Agricultural Microbiology, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, Wanju 55365, Republic of Korea, Department of Applied Bioscience, Dong-A University, Busan 49315, Republic of Korea)
• Mee Kyung Sang(Division of Agricultural Microbiology, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, Wanju 55365, Republic of Korea) Corresponding author