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Bacterial diversity of soil in the vicinity of Pindari glacier, Himalayan mountain ranges, India, using culturable bacteria and soil 16S rRNA gene clones

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Abstract

Three 16S rRNA gene clone libraries (P1L, P4L and P8L) were constructed using three soil samples (P1S, P4S and P8S) collected near Pindari glacier, Himalayas. The three libraries yielded a total of 703 clones. Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were common to the three libraries. In addition to the above P1L and P8L shared the phyla Acidobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes and Planctomycetes. Phyla Chlamydiae, Chlorobi, Chloroflexi, Dictyoglomi, Fibrobacteres, Nitrospirae, Verrucomicrobia, candidate division SPAM and candidate TM7s TM7a phylum were present only in P1L. Rarefaction analysis indicated that the bacterial diversity in P4S and P8S soil samples was representative of the sample. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that P1S and P8S were different from P4S soil sample. PCA also indicated that arsenic content, pH, Cr and altitude influence the observed differences in the percentage of specific OTUs in the three 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. The observed bacterial diversity was similar to that observed for other Himalayan and non-polar cold habitats. A total of 40 strains of bacteria were isolated from the above three soil samples and based on the morphology 20 bacterial strains were selected for further characterization. The 20 bacteria belonged to 12 different genera. All the isolates were psychro-, halo- and alkalitolerant. Amylase and urease activities were detected in majority of the strains but lipase and protease activities were not detected. Long chain, saturated, unsaturated and branched fatty acids were predominant in the psychrotolerant bacteria.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Department of Biotechnology and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India, for financial support to Dr. S. Shivaji. T.N.R.S. acknowledges the CSIR, Government of India, for the award of Research Associateship. We would like to thank Dr. S.M. Singh, Scientist, from National Centre for Antarctic Ocean Research, Goa, for providing the data on the soil chemical characteristics.

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  1. Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500007, India

    S. Shivaji, M. S. Pratibha, B. Sailaja, K. Hara Kishore, Ashish K. Singh, Z. Begum, Uttam Anarasi, S. R. Prabagaran, G. S. N. Reddy & T. N. R. Srinivas

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  1. S. Shivaji
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  2. M. S. Pratibha
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Correspondence to S. Shivaji.

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Communicated by T. Matsunaga.

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Shivaji, S., Pratibha, M.S., Sailaja, B. et al. Bacterial diversity of soil in the vicinity of Pindari glacier, Himalayan mountain ranges, India, using culturable bacteria and soil 16S rRNA gene clones. Extremophiles 15, 1–22 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-010-0333-4

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