CCMB researchers discovered the bacteria over the past decade from diverse habitats
Indibacter Alkaliphilus, Pedobacter Himalayensis, Bacillus Aryabhattai, Sphingobacterium Antarcticus — don't get intimidated by the high-sounding scientific names. If you notice closely, many of them are associated with India.
Named in honour of the country, the imposing Himalayas, Aryabhatta and the icy continent of Antarctica, these are among the 70 bacteria discovered from diverse habitats ranging from the cold regions of Antarctica, Arctic, stratosphere and ancient Lonar lake (in Maharashtra) that was formed when a meteorite hit the earth millions of years ago and the deep sea.
Led by Dr. S. Shivaji, Director-grade scientist from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), the researchers have discovered these bacteria over the past decade, including five this year.
The majority of the microbes, however, were from the cold habitats and are considered unique because of their ability to survive at temperatures below the freezing point of water.
Excellent model systems
With their ability to survive, grow and divide in freezing climes, these psychrophilic or cold-loving bacteria serve as excellent model systems to understand molecular basis for cold adaptation.
They could be used to generate as enzymes or bio-molecules with application in biotech industry, medicine and agriculture. For instance, in the pharma industry such enzymes could help in cost-cutting, and in agriculture, the low-temperature growing bacteria, when added to soil, have shown improved yields of plants growing in cold regions.
Dr. Shivaji told The Hindu here on Saturday that through genomic studies, scientists at CCMB have identified two genes unique to these cold-loving bacteria.
The genes involved in protein synthesis and amino acid metabolism were found to be essential for the survival of the micro-organisms at temperatures below 10 degree Centigrade.
However, the absence of the genes had no impact on their survival at temperatures above 10 degree.C.
Cold-loving bacteria
Bacillus Isronensis, one of the seven bacteria isolated from stratosphere (10-50 km altitude) was named in honour of ISRO, which funded that part of the project, while another microbe from a Himalayan glacier was named after CCMB (Bacillus Cecembensis).
Another microbe from Antarctica was christened as Arthrobacter Gangotriensis in memory of Dakshin Gangotri, the first Indian research station set up on the icy continent.
This for Bhargava
One of the microbes found in Indian Ocean was named in honour of the founder-director of CCMB, P.M. Bhargava (Bhargavaea Cecembensis).
Dr. Shivaji said the bacteria, which were isolated from stratosphere, were found to be highly resistant to ultra-violet rays when compared to normal bacteria.
Their their membrane structure, too, was quite different from the terrestrial microbes.
Such studies on microbes from extreme habitats would eventually become a bio-resource for the country to generate enzymes and bio-molecules.
Keywords: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, cold-loving bacteria, micro-organisms, microbes' study, extreme habitats
how come the hindu is carrying old reports. many local newspapers published the report way back in 2010. this is but regurgitated report. did not expect this from the hindu.
I just wanted to agree with Nagendrakumar. There is no excuse for not writing the scientific nomenclature correctly.
I am not at all impressed with this name.
Asian elephant- Elephas maximus indicus ,Neem tree -Azadirachta indica
This could have been named as - Alkalibacter Indica .
Why these botanists don't think about previous names before coining of any new name ?
Dear Editor,
In several international conferences on molecular pylogeny and
taxonomy, scientists have expressed unsavory conventions followed over
nomenclature system in naming new genus or species on person or
inventor's name. While worldwide, place names are accepted , let us
not allow the common man's social psyche creeping in to the scientific
minds. To reflect our consciousnesses to honor a scientist or any
person, for his excellent remarkable contributions, let us not
dishonor the biota. Let us realize that they had been living in the
planet even before the any person/scientist born. To honor a
scientific legend, there are national and international awards, prices
and expert panel committees who recognize the importance of their
great discoveries. This kind of naming them on a person's name in the
'name' of honoring a scientist sets a bad example and sets up bad
trend as they trigger professional conflict of interests/purposes in
an organization.
Sir, Is this Discovery in 2009 ?. As I Found it on International Journal
of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. but, Sir Today we are in
2011 What New in it. pl told.
In a binomial name the Genus name starts with a Capital letter and the species name starts with a small letter. It must have been Indibacter alkaliphilus etc,
The scientific nomenculatre has two words the genus and species written in italics or regular alphabets and underlined. The Genus starts with capital letter while the species is always started with lower case. Please correct this. Any way it was a painstaking process to get these things in public domain. Well done CCMB.
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