“Halophilic bacterial diversity and dominance in saline sea water of Gujarat.

Madhusudan Panchal1‫٭‬, Neha Srivastava2 and D.K. Arora1

National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Kushmaur, Mau Nath

Bhanjan-275101, U.P., India

Indian Institute of Toxicological Research, Lucknow-226001, U.P., India

*Corresponding Author: madhusudan006@gmail.com

The group of microorganisms named “halophiles” inhabit hyper saline environment,

an extreme condition for most of other microorganisms. Halophiles can resist the
denaturing effect of salt by balancing the osmotic pressure of the environment and
overcome the salt stress. Salinity is the most important property affecting the growth,
establishment and diversity of halophilic bacteria. This study is mainly focused on
their ecology, physiology, taxonomy, phylogenetic relationships and dominance in
saline sea water of Gujarat. 12 different saline water samples were analysed to
improve the understanding of halophilic bacterial diversity among the experimental
sites. Through the inoculation of water samples on different microbiological media,
59 bacterial morphotypes were collected. Growth kinetics studies of these 59
bacterial morphotypes at 8 different NaCl concentrations (0%, 1%, 2.5%, 5%, 10%,
15%, 20% and 25%) revealed 4 highest salt tolerant bacterial cultures growing at
25% NaCl. These cultures may be useful to reveal the salt tolerance genetic
information of halophilic bacteria.

*Corresponding Author is working now in R&D Microbiology, Titan Biotech Ltd. Delhi.