CspA encodes a major cold shock protein in Himalayan psychrotolerant Pseudomonas strains.

The major cold-shock protein (CspA) encoding gene cspA were detected in three Himalayan psychrotrophic Pseudomonad strains, by PCR amplification. Partial sequencing of three Pseudomonas strains cspA gene and BLAST search confirmed the high similarity with putative bacterial cspA gene and bacterial CspA protein. Bioinformatics analysis of these partial CspA amino acid sequences showed presence of putative conserved region for DNA/RNA-binding motifs RNP-1 and RNP-2.

Cryotolerance strategies of Pseudomonads isolated from the rhizosphere of Himalayan plants.

The cold stress biology of psychrotrophic Pseudomonas strains isolated from the rhizosphere of Himalayan plants have been explored to evaluate their cryotolerance characteristcs. Pseudomonas strains were examined for stress metabolites, viz., exopolysaccharide (EPS) production, intracellular sugar, polyols and amino acid content, ice nucleation activity, and their freezing survival at -10 and -40°C, respectively.

Genetic and functional diversity among root-associated psychrotrophic Pseudomonad's isolated from the Himalayan plants.

Out of 534 psychrotrophic bacteria, 12 bacteria were selected on the basis of plant growth promoting activities at 4 °C and identified as Pseudomonas genus. These strains showed high level of genetic polymorphisms based on RAPD and rep-PCR fingerprinting. This genetic variability revealed that isolates belonging to same species were as high as the variability among different species.