Isolation and Identification of Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria from the Banks of Meenachil River, Kottayam (District), Kerala
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53032/tvcr/2025.v7n3.27Keywords:
Nitrogen, Meenachil, 16S rRNA, Agrobacterium, PCR, Agriculture, Microbial culture.Abstract
In plants, nitrogen is a critical limiting factor required for the proper maintenance of growth and production. Nitrogen forms about 78% of the total atmospheric gases, and plants are capable of utilising its reduced forms only. Certain microorganisms in the soil have the potential to build up atmospheric nitrogen into its reduced and plant-absorbable form, a process called nitrogen fixation. In conventional agricultural practices, farmers rely largely upon chemical fertilisers in nitrogen-deficient soils to counter the deficiency and increase the crop yield. Besides the benefit, more often, these chemicals are expensive and associated with several ecological problems. On the contrary, nitrogen-fixing bacteria (NFB) can effectively substitute chemical fertilisers and are eco-friendly too. But, research in the development of NFB into biofertilizers is in its infancy, and many areas in India are not properly studied for the presence of novel NFB strains. In this context, an attempt has been made to isolate and identify nitrogen-fixing bacteria from the banks of the Meenachil River, Kottayam. Two of the isolates from the Meenachil River exhibited significant nitrogen-fixing efficiency in biochemical analysis. These isolates were identified as Agrobacterium strains by 16S rRNA sequence analysis and colony morphological study. Further studies are required for species-level identification of the two isolates.
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