Soil contamination with heavy metals (cadmium, lead, chromium) is a global environmental problem originating from mining, industrial discharge, and certain agricultural practices (Wang et al., 2020). Heavy metals are persistent, toxic at low concentrations, and may enter the food chain through crop uptake, posing risks to human health and ecosystem function (Riseh et al., 2022). Phytoremediation of the use of plants to extract, sequester or stabilize contaminants is attractive due to its low cost, public acceptance and environmental friendliness, but plant performance is often limited by metal phytotoxicity and low metal bioavailability (Qin et al., 2024). Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are a diverse group of soil bacteria that colonize plant roots and promote plant growth through multiple mechanisms: production of phytohormones (e.g., IAA), ACC deaminase activity (which lowers ethylene under stress), siderophore secretion, phosphate solubilization, nitrogen fixation and induction of plant antioxidant systems (Jeyanthi & Kanimozhi, 2021; Wang et al., 2022).