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Culture independent bacterial diversity of Changme Khang and Changme Khangpu glaciers of North Sikkim, India

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Abstract

Microbial communities at cryosphere are the cosmopolitan buffers of important biogeochemical processes stationed at extreme archaic and frigid conditions. In the present study microbial diversity analysis from accumulation zone of two glaciers of North Sikkim, India has been carried by two culture independent methods. The phospholipid fatty acids analysis of Changme Khang and Changme Khangpu glacier showed that both of these were dominated by Gram-positive bacteria followed by Gram-negative bacteria. Among the two glaciers, Changme Khang (54.04%) had higher percentage of Gram-positive bacteria than Changme Khangpu (24.84%), while Gram-negative bacteria were higher in Changme Khangpu (22.65%) than Changme Khang (4.41%). The metagenomic analysis shows the dominance of Proteobacteria followed by Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. Betaproteobacteria were the dominant class among Proteobacteria. Similar kind of bacterial diversity was also observed from other polar and non-polar glaciers.

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Acnowledgement

This study has been funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (IUCCC) and Department of Biotechnology (BT/20/NE/2011). We are grateful to Forest Department, Govt. of Sikkim for providing research permit and access to the sampling sites. Authors are thankful to Dr. Uttam Lal, Dr. Rakesh Ranjan and Dr. Smriti Basnet for their support during the field study. The authors would like to thank Department of Microbiology for all the laboratory facilities.

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  1. Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Sikkim University, 6th Mile, Samdur, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim, 737102, India

    Mingma Thundu Sherpa, Ishfaq Nabi Najar, Sayak Das & Nagendra Thakur

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  1. Mingma Thundu Sherpa
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  2. Ishfaq Nabi Najar
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  3. Sayak Das
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  4. Nagendra Thakur
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MTS performed sample collection, did the field study, experimental works, analysis and prepared the manuscript, NT designed the study, reviewed and edited manuscript, INN and SD helped in some experimental work.

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Correspondence to Nagendra Thakur.

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Sherpa, M.T., Najar, I.N., Das, S. et al. Culture independent bacterial diversity of Changme Khang and Changme Khangpu glaciers of North Sikkim, India. Environmental Sustainability 2, 241–253 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42398-019-00067-z

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