EC Microbiology Editor’s Column - 2017 Biodiversity and Biotechnological Applications of Psychrotrophic Microbes Isolated from Indian Himalayan Regions Ajar Nath Yadav Eternal University India Ajar Nath Yadav1*, Priyanka Verma2, Shashwati Ghosh Sachan3 and Anil Kumar Saxena4 1Department of Biotechnology, Akal College of Agriculture, Eternal University, Sirmour, India 2Department of Microbiology, Akal College of Basic Sciences, Eternal University, Sirmour, India 3Department of Bio-Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India 4ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Mau, India microbes with multifunctional attributes may be applied in COLUMN ARTICLE industry and agriculture sectors. Biodiversity; Cold Desert; Indian Himalayas; Abstract Keywords: Psychrotrophic Microbes; Sub-Glacial Lakes Extreme cold environments are the hot spots of biodiver- sity of diverse groups of microbes including archaea, bac- INTRODUCTION teria and fungi. Prospecting the cold habitats of the Indian Himalayan region has led to the isolation of a great diversi- The microbiome of cold habitat is of particular impor- ty of psychrotrophic microbes. The cold-adapted microbes tance in global ecology since the majority of terrestrial have potential biotechnological applications in agriculture, and aquatic ecosystems of our planet are permanently medicine and industry as they can produce cold-adapted or seasonally submitted to cold temperatures. The psy- enzymes, anti-freezing compounds, antibiotics and possess chrotrophic microbes have been isolated from cold envi- diverse multifarious plant growth promoting attributes. Cold adapted microbes are ubiquitous in nature and can be ronments including permafrost soils, glaciers, sub-glacial isolated from permanently ice-covered lakes, cloud glaciers, lakes and hilly area. Microbial communities from cold hab- and hilly regions. Microbes recovered using culture depen- itat have attained the focus of applied research not only in dent techniques belong to different phylum Actinobacteria, terms of biotechnological prospects but also to understand - the use of primitive analogues of biomolecules existed anobacteria, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria of diverse gen- during early Earth environments [1,2]. The microbiomes of Bacteroidetes, Basidiomycota, Chlamydiae, Chloroflexi, Cy era namely: Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Brevundimonas, Cellu- cold environments of Indian Himalayan regions have been losimicrobium, Citricoccus, Enterobacter, Exiguobacterium, extensively investigated in the past few years with a focus Flavobacterium, Janthinobacterium, Lysinibacillus, Methylo- on culture dependent [3-8]. Many novel microbes have bacterium, Paenibacillus, Pantoea, Planococcus, Pontibacil- been sort out from cold environments worldwide including lus, Providencia, Pseudomonas, Psychrobacter, Rhodococcus, Sphingobacterium antarcticus, Psychromonas ingrahamii, Sanguibacter, Sphingobacterium, Sporosarcina, Staphylococ- Exiguobacterium soli, Cryobacterium roopkundense, Sphin- cus, Stenotrophomonas and Virgibacillus. The cold adapted gomonas glacialis, Pedobacter arcticus, Sphingobacteri- Citation: Ajar Nath Yadav., et al. “Biodiversity and Biotechnological Applications of Psychrotrophic Microbes Isolated from Indian Himalayan Regions”. EC Microbiology ECO.01 (2017): 48-54. Biodiversity and Biotechnological Applications of Psychrotrophic Microbes Isolated from Indian Himalayan Regions 49 um psychroaquaticum, Lacinutrix jangbogonensis, Massilia included as Proteobacteria (42.57%), Firmicutes (32.94%), eurypsychrophila, Glaciimonas frigoris and Psychrobacter Actinobacteria (17.78%), Bacteroidetes (2.62%), Basid- pocilloporae [9-14]. Along with novel species of psychro- iomycota (1.75%), Cyanobacteria (1.17%), Chlamydiae trophic microbes, some microbial species including Ar- throbacter nicotianae, Brevundimonas terrae, Paenibacillus - (0.58%) and Chloroflexi (0.58%) (Figure 1). On review of tylopili and Pseudomonas cedrina have been malayan regions including, Glacier [Roopkund glacier, Pin- fifteen different extreme cold environments of Indian Hi time from cold deserts of NW Himalayas and exhibited mul- dari glacier, Gangotri glacier, Lahaul and Spiti]; Sub-glacial reported first tifunctional plant growth promoting (PGP) attributes at low lakes [Chandratal Lake, Dal Lake, Dashair Lake, Gurudong- temperatures [5]. The psychrotrophic microbial species Au- mar lake, Pangong Lake]; Cold desert of Himalayas [Chu- rantimonas altamirensis, Bacillus baekryungensis, B. maris- mathang, Khardungla Pass, Rohtang Pass]; Ice-coped re- flavi, Desemzia incerta, Paenibacillus xylanexedens, Pontiba- vivers [Indus River, Zanskar River, Beas River]. On study of cillus sp., Providencia sp., Pseudomonas frederiksbergensis, microbiome of cold environments from Indian Himalayan Sinobaca beijingensis and Vibrio metschnikovii have been regions, it was found that, more than 66 different genera of 8 different phyla have been sort out and characterized for environments of Indian Himalayas [6], where as in anoth- different biotechnological prospective. There were many reported first time from high altitude and low temperature er study on wheat microbiome in diverse agro-ecological psychrotrophic bacteria have been reported as niche spe- ecosystem in India, the two psychrotrophic bacteria namely Arthrobacter methylotrophus and Pseudomonas rhodesiae e.g. among 66 different genera, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Ex- cific as well as common bacteria from diverse site survey have been sort out [3]. The psychrophilic and psy- iguobacterium, Paenibacillus, Planococcus, Pseudomonas, chrotrophic Bacillus and Bacillus derived genera such as Ba- Psychrobacter, Providencia, Sporosarcina and Staphylococ- first time cillus altitudinis, B. amyloliquefaciens, B. muralis, B. psychro- cus were ubiquitous in nature and have been reported all saccharolyticus, Paenibacillus lautus, Paenibacillus pabuli, - Paenibacillus terrae and Paenibacillus tylopili Stenotrophomonas from Indus river, Klebsiella, fifteen sites, whereas some unique microbes as niche-spe plant growth promoting (PGP) attributes have been report- Sinobaca and Vibrio from Zanskar river, Aurantimonas from , with efficient cific such as et al. [15]. Beas River, Desemzia from Pangong Lake, Variovorax from Dashair Lake, Duganella, Duganella, Herbaspirillum, Iodo- Theed first diversity time by of Yadav., microorganisms inhabiting cold environ- bacter, Novosphingobium, Oxalobacteraceae, Paucibacter, ments has been extensively investigated in the past few Pectobacterium, Pseudoalteromonas, Pseudomonadaceae years with a focus on culture dependent techniques. The and Undibacterium from Gurudongmar Lake, Microbacteri- different groups of microbes have been reported, which um and Aeromonas from Chandratal Lake, Agromyces, Brevi- included different phylum mainly phylum Actinobacteria, bacterium, Cedecea, Enterobacter, Erwinia and Micrococcus from Dal Lake, Mortierella from Khardungla Pass, Paracoc- Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Overall the Bacteroidetes, Basidiomycota, Chlamydiae, Chloroflexi, cus from Chumathang, Methylobacterium from Rohtang distribution of psychrotrophic microbes varied in all bac- Pass, Citricoccus from Roopkund glacier, Acidovorax from terial phyla, Proteobacteria were most dominant followed Pindari glacier, Brevibacillus from Gangotri glacier and Rahnella from Lahaul and Spiti have been reported from the was reported from phylum Chlamydiae followed by Chlo- by firmicutes and actinobacteria. Least number of microbes single site survey [1,2,5-8,15-32] (Figure 2). - an Himalayan regions (Permanently ice-covered lakes, ice roflexi. On review of different cold environments in Indi caped rivers and glaciers), it was found that 8 different phylum have been sort out belonging to different phylum Citation: Ajar Nath Yadav., et al. “Biodiversity and Biotechnological Applications of Psychrotrophic Microbes Isolated from Indian Himalayan Regions”. EC Microbiology ECO.01 (2017): 48-54. Biodiversity and Biotechnological Applications of Psychrotrophic Microbes Isolated from Indian Himalayan Regions 50 Based on a comprehensive literature analysis psychro- trophic members of phylum actinobacteria has been re- ported from different genera such as Acidimicrobium, Ac- tinomyces, Arthrobacter, Bifidobacterium, Cellulomonas, Clavibacter, Corynebacterium, Frankia, Microbacterium, Micrococcus, Mycobacterium, Nocardia, Propionibacterium, Pseudonocardia, Rhodococcus, Sanguibacter and Streptomy- ces. The member of Arthrobacter species were most domi- nant actinobacteria isolated from cold environments which included Arthrobacter antarcticus, A. aurescens, A. chloro- Figure 1: Distribution of different phylum of psychrotrophic phenolicus, A. koreensis, A. methylotrophus, A. nicotianae, A. microbes isolated from Indian Himalayan regions. nicotinovorans, A. nitroguajacolicus, A. polychromogenes, A. psychrochitiniphilus, A. psychrolactophilus, A. sulfonivorans, A. sulfurous, and A. ureafaciens [3-8,28,33,34]. Many Bacillus and Bacillus derived genera (BBDG) have been reported from cold environments such as Bacillus ae- rius, Bacillus aerophilus, Bacillus stratosphericus, Bacillus altitudinis [35], Bacillus thuringiensis [36], Bacillus mega- terium [37], Paenibacillus glacialis [38] and Bacillus cereus, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus cibi, Bacillus pumilus, Lysinibacillus fusiformis [39,40]. Cold adapted Bacilli have been reported from different site survey in Indian Hima- layan regions