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Deciphering the genetic and functional diversity of cultivable bacteria from chasmophytic pigweed (Chenopodium album) from Tsomoriri, Ladakh, India

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Abstract

Chasmophytes are a group of diverse plants growing on cracks and crevices of rocks. They survive under nutrient and water-limited conditions. Microorganisms associated with chasmophytes may play a critical role in their survival. In the present study, 263 bacterial isolates were obtained from chasmophytic wild Chenopodium collected from Tsomoriri, Ladakh. Members of Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, Pantoea, and Alcaligenes comprised ~ 90% of the Gram-negative bacteria, while among Gram-positive, Bacillus, Solibacillus, Fictibacillus, Microbacterium, and Micrococcus were most abundant. When evaluated for various plant growth-promoting traits, 36 bacteria could solubilize insoluble phosphate, 10 bacteria could release potassium from silicate minerals, and 25 bacteria could solubilize ZnO, while 124 bacteria produced siderophores. ACC deaminase activity was present in 31 isolates, while 46 bacteria could produce IAA (10.40–232.0 μg/mL). Furthermore, more than 64% of the isolates could grow at 50 °C, while ~ 60% could grow at 4 °C. Similarly, ~ 50% isolates were able to grow with > 1.7 M NaCl and ~ 70% could grow under high osmolarity (~ 67 mOsmol/L). The ability of these microorganisms to grow under such a wide range of temperature, salinity, and osmolarity offers adaptive advantage to colonize plants surviving under harsh environmental conditions. A large number (30–49%) of these isolates could produce acids from various sugars and sugar alcohols which is crucial to release mineral nutrients trapped in the rocks. The results indicated that genetically and functionally diverse microflora associated with wild Chenopodium might be helping these plants to effectively mine nutrients and water under extreme conditions.

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Gene sequences are available in NCBI, cultures, and other information are available with the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (NBAIM), Mau for financial assistance and infrastructural facilities provided during the work. This is a part of the Ph.D. work of the first author under supervision of the corresponding authors.

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  1. ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (NBAIM), Mau, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Sudipta Das, Shaloo Verma, Prassan Choudhary & Anil Kumar Saxena

  2. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Sudipta Das & Rajni Singh

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  1. Sudipta Das
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Contributions

AKS contributed in conceptualization of the work. SD collected samples. SD carried out the isolation, characterization, and identification of bacteria. SD, SV, and PC compiled results and prepared first draft. AKS and RS supervised the study and edited the final draft and gave final approval of this version to be published. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rajni Singh or Anil Kumar Saxena.

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Supplementary Information

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13205_2022_3278_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Fig. 1 UPGMA dendrogram for gram positive bacterial isolates constructed based on restriction profiling using TaqI, HaeIII and RsaI restriction enzymes

13205_2022_3278_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Fig. 2 UPGMA dendrogram for gram negative bacterial isolates constructed based on restriction profiling using TaqI, HaeIII and RsaI restriction enzymes

Supplementary Fig. 3 Plant grown under in vitro conditions showing effects of microbial inoculation

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Das, S., Verma, S., Choudhary, P. et al. Deciphering the genetic and functional diversity of cultivable bacteria from chasmophytic pigweed (Chenopodium album) from Tsomoriri, Ladakh, India. 3 Biotech 12, 242 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-022-03278-0

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