Abstract. Free living nitrogen fixers represent a range of microorganisms including bacteria living on plant residues (saprophytes), bacteria which live entirely within plants (endophytes) and bacteria living in close association with the plant roots (rhizobacteria). We have isolated a number of rhizosphere associated bacteria from two of the hot arid zone plants and explored these in terms of nitrogen fixing ability both in solid and liquid culture conditions. The maximum coloring zone was developed in T-1 (22 mm) whereas minimum was in T-3 (4 mm) in case of the C. polygonoides associated bacterial community. The coloring zone was found maximum in TS-2 (27 mm) and minimum in TS-1 (11 mm), in case of isolates associated with rhizosphere of L. sindicus. The highest and lowest acetylene reduction activity (ARA) was detected in TS-13 (8303 n moles / 24 h) and T-10 (1658 n moles / 24 h), respectively.

The biotransformation of acrylonitrile was investigated using thermophilic nitrilase produced from a new isolate Streptomyces sp. MTCC 7546 in both the free and immobilized state. Under optimal conditions,the enzyme converts nitriles to acids without the formation of amides.The whole cells of the isolate were immobilized in agar-agar and the beads so formed were evaluated for 25 cycles at 50 degrees C. The enzyme showed a little loss of activity during reuse. Seventy-one per cent of 0.5 M acrylonitrile was converted to acid at 6 h of incubation at a very low density of immobilized cells, while 100% conversion was observed at 3 h by free cells.

A strain of Brevibacillus formosus, capable of producing a high level of chitinase, was isolated and characterized for the first time from the Great Indian Desert soils. The production of extracellularly secreted chitinase was analyzed for its biocontrol potential and optimized by varying media pH, temperature, incubation period, substrate concentrations, carbon and nitrogen sources, etc. A twofold increase in chitinase production (798 IU/mL) was achieved in optimized media containing (g l(-1)) chitin 2.0, malt extract 1.5, glycerol 1.0, ammonium nitrate 0.3%, T-20 (0.1%) and media pH 7.0 at 37 °C. The produced enzyme was purified using a three-step purification procedure involving ultra-filtration, ammonium sulphate precipitation and adsorption chromatography. The estimated molecular weight of the purified enzyme was 37.6 kDa. The enzyme was found thermostable at higher temperatures and showed a t ½ of more than 5 h at 100 °C. Our results show that the chitinase produced by B. formosus BISR-1 is thermostable at higher temperatures.

A reliable method for characterizing microbial communities on the basis of their differences in the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences in the hot arid zone sandy soils has been optimized. A desert plant (Calligonum polygonoides) was chosen to provide the rhizospheric soil samples, collected from three different agro-ecological locations. Total community DNA was efficiently extracted at small-scale level using direct lysis with hot sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), glass bead beating and finally subjecting the sandy soil to liquid nitrogen freeze-thaw cycles. To amplify V3 region of bacterial 16S rRNA gene, universal conserved primers

No abstract