Microbial Diversity of Chambal ravines and their potential exploitation for sustainable development

Abstract

This research work was designed to assess microbial diversity of Chambal ravines and their potential exploitation for sustainable development. Physico-chemical characteristics of soil of Chambal ravines of Morena and Dholpur were assessed. Soil pH was neutral to slightly alkaline, electrical conductivity was moderate 0.31 0.51 mS/cm. Soil texture variable; sandy, sandy loam and sandy clay. Soils of all sites had high proportion of sand, low water holding capacity, low organic matter, N, P, K level low to moderate, level of Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe was moderate to adequate. The Pearson s matrix of fifteen physical and chemical attributes showed significant correlation in twenty nine and thirty seven attribute pairs for Morena and Dholpur soils respectively out of 105 pairs. newlineFifty five fungi were found in soil of Chambal ravines, identified on basis of morphological characteristics. Twenty eight isolates were identified on molecular basis (18Sr RNA/ITS sequencing). Five, ten, twelve species had BLAST similarity index of 100%, 99%, 92 98% respectively. Talaromyces pinophilus had 79% BLAST similarity index. Thirteen isolates could be new species. The number of species from Morena and Dholpur were 46 and 39 respectively. Most abundant genus was Aspergillus in both Morena and Dholpur soils. Talaromyces and Schizophyllum occurred in Morena soils only and Phoma occurred in Dholpur soils only. The number of colonies ranged from 62 X 103 to 96 X 103 CFU/g soil. Range of Margalef s index for species richness, Shannon-Weiner index and Pielou s evenness index was 3.63 6.31, 2.67 3.23 and 0.944 0.972 respectively. Two hundred and six compounds identified by GCMS were produced by eleven fungi. newlineThirty three cultured bacteria were identified on basis of 16S rRNA sequencing and BLAST similarity index of 16S rRNA sequences were analyzed, sixteen bacterial isolates had BLAST similarity index of 99% they could be strains, 12 isolates had similarity index of 90 99% (novo species) and four isolates had similarity index of 83 88% (nov