Tapan Kumar Nailwal

Multitrait plant growth promoting (PGP) rhizobacterial isolates from Brassica juncea rhizosphere : Keratin degradation and growth promotion.

Plant growth promoting (PGP) rhizobacteria, a beneficial microbe colonizing plant roots, enhanced crop productivity and offers an attractive way to replace chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and supplements. The keratinous waste which comprises feathers, hairs, nails, skin and wool creates problem of solid waste management due to presence of highly recalcitrant keratin. The multi traits rhizobacteria effective to remove both keratine from the environment by producing keratinase enzyme and to eradicate the chemical fertilizer by providing different PGP activity is novel achievement. In the present study, the effective PM2 strain of PGPR was isolated from rhizospheric soil of mustard (Brassica juncea) field, Pantnagar and they were identified on the basis of different biochemical tests as belonging to Bacillus genera. Different plant growth promoting activity, feather degradation and keratinolytic activity was performed and found very effective toward all the parameters. Furthermore, the efficient strain PM2 was identified on the basis of 16s rRNA sequencing and confirmed as Bacillus cereus. The strain PM2 might be used efficiently for keratinous waste management and PGP activity. Therefore, the present study suggests that Bacillus cereus have multi traits activity which extremely useful for different PGP activity and biotechnological process involving keratin hydrolysis, feather biodegradation or in the leather industry.

Crop Improvement Through Microbial Technology: A Step Toward Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract Throughout the world, human and animal population depends on crops for its nutritional value, which is necessary for their growth and development. The load on agricultural production is increasing day by day due to the increased human population. One of the possible ways to fulfill the demand is to increase the crop production in microbial biotechnology. Microbial systems are the solution for the crop production through natural approach without affecting the soil fertility; in this chapter, we are emphasizing the role of microbial system for crop improvement. Recent reports suggested that microbial consortium is better for the production of increased yield in crop plants. Besides this, beneficial gene transfer from microorganism might be the other solution for crop improvement.