Pseudomonas sp. strain C7 isolated from sediment of Thane creek near Mumbai, India, showed the ability to grow on glucose and carbaryl in the presence of 7.5 and 3.5% of NaCl, respectively. It also showed good growth in the absence of NaCl indicating the strain to be halotolerant. Increasing salt concentration impacted the growth on carbaryl; however, the specific activity of various enzymes involved in the metabolism remained unaffected. Among various enzymes, 1-naphthol 2-hydroxylase was found to be sensitive to chloride as compared to carbaryl hydrolase and gentisate 1,2-dioxygenase. The intracellular concentration of Cl ions remained constant (6-8 mM) for cells grown on carbaryl either in the presence or absence of NaCl. Thus the ability to adapt to the increasing concentration of NaCl is probably by employing chloride efflux pump and/or increase in the concentration of osmolytes as mechanism for halotolerance. The halotolerant nature of the strain will be beneficial to remediate carbaryl from saline agriculture fields, ecosystems and wastewaters.

Drought is an abiotic stress which causes huge economic losses in agriculture. Silicon is considered the best element which plays a key role in inducing drought mitigation properties. Silicate solubilizing bacterial strains were evaluated for their survivability in the low water activity potential. Bacillus tequilensis SKSSB09 showed high survivability at 40% polyethylene glycol 6000 concentration i.e. -1.76 MPa. ACC deaminase activity of the silicate solubilizing bacterial strains was assessed, among which B. tequilensis SKSSB09 showed ACC deaminase production in Dworkin and Foster minimal media. In–planta studies showed the survivability of maize plants till 23 days without water. Silicon deposition in the maize leaves showed 0.0384±0.0021μg/g. The leaf membrane stability index of the inoculated plants showed 72.2 ±3.8% which also correlates with the epicuticular wax content (2.4±0.56 mg/g). Proline content plays a key role in enhancing drought tolerance in plants. The inoculated plants showed high proline content (39.8±3.7 μg/g) which plays a key role in maintaining the cell sap and increasing the photosynthetic rate. Scanning electron microscopic studies revealed the deposition of silicon in the leaves and the formation of sunken stomata which reduces the transpiration rate. Based on the above results, Bacillus tequilensis SKSSB09 can be used as a plant growth-promoting rhizobacterial inoculant during drought conditions.

In view of unique physico-chemical observations affecting the geometry and various properties of the substituted thiourea complexes in literature along with several biological activities, N-(hydroxy)-N,N-diphenyl thiourea was taken up for study.  Complexes with geometries of high spin octahedral for iron(II), cobalt(II); tetrahedral & square planar for nickel(II); and dimeric square planar for copper chloride, copper perchlorate, copper acetate and distorted octahedral for copper nitrate were synthesized and characterized based on magnetic moments, visible spectra, diffuse reflectance spectra, electron spin resonance, infrared spectral studies, and thermal analysis. Interestingly, the nature of anion influenced the geometry, the complex from copper nitrate salt resulted in a distorted octahedral structure and complexes formed from copper chloride, copper perchlorate, copper acetate exhibited sub-normal magnetic moments, highly insoluble in the most common organic solvents and water. Based on these and spectral data, polymeric or square-planar dimeric geometry with sulfur bridging between copper atoms is proposed.  It was confirmed by the application of Bleaney-Bower’s equation for magnetic susceptibility, applicable to dimeric copper complexes. The overall thermal behavior of the ligand and complexes were observed and the detailed calculations interestingly lead to confirmation of the above proposed geometrical structures.