Abstract
Forest ecosystem harbour a large number of biotic components where cellulolytic microorganisms participate actively in the biotransformation of dead and decaying organic matter and soil nutrient cycling. This study explores the aerobic culturable cellulolytic microorganisms in the forest soils of North East India. Soil samples rich in dead and decaying organic matter were collected from eight conserved forests during the season when microbes were found to be most active. Cellulolytic microorganisms were isolated using selective media in which cellulose was the sole carbon source. Population of culturable, aerobic, cellulolytic microorganisms were found to be higher at the incubation temperature that corresponds to the natural ambient temperature of the site of sample collection. Bacterial population was higher in all of the sites than fungal population. Bacterial population ranged from 1.91 × 105 to 3.35 × 106 CFU g-1 dry soil while actinomycetes and fungal population ranged from 9.13 × 102 to 3.46 × 104 CFU g-1 dry soil and 9.36 × 102 to 4.31 × 104 CFU g-1 dry soil, respectively. It was observed that though many isolates showed activity on the CMC plate assay, very few isolates showed significant filter paper activity. Three cellulolytic fungal isolates showing high FPase activity were characterised, identified and submitted to GenBank as Talaromyces verruculosus SGMNPf3 (KC937053), Trichoderma gamsii SGSPf7 (KC937055) and Trichoderma atroviride SGBMf4 (KC937054).
Highlights
In recent years, due to uncertainty in fossil fuel price and concerns over climate change, there is a global urge in reducing the use of fossil fuels and cut down greenhouse gas emission
All colonies were counted and the bacterial populations were expressed as Colony Forming Unit (CFU) per gram sample dry weight
More microbial colonies were obtained by incubating at the temperature similar to that of the sites from where the samples were collected. This suggests that cellulolytic microorganisms can flourish in culture medium only when they are incubated at their natural ambient environment and this should be an important consideration in culture based diversity study
Summary
Due to uncertainty in fossil fuel price and concerns over climate change, there is a global urge in reducing the use of fossil fuels and cut down greenhouse gas emission. In the Aerobic microorganisms use different strategies to degrade lignocellulose. They secrete enzymes with different cellulolytic activities. North East India represents diverse ecological niches with its unique geography. It stands as the transitional zone between the Indian, Indo-Malayan and IndoChinese biogeographic regions and is the geographical gateway for much of India’s flora and fauna (Myers et al 2000). We have attempted to study the population diversity of culturable cellulose degrading microorganisms and characterize efficient cellulolytic fungal isolates from the undisturbed forests of this region
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