Comparison of soil bacterial communities of Pinus patula of Nilgiris, western ghats with other biogeographically distant pine forest clone libraries.

The bacterial community structure of the rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil of Pinus patula, found in the Nilgiris region of Western Ghats, was studied by constructing 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. In the rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil clone libraries constructed, 13 and 15 bacterial phyla were identified, respectively. The clone libraries showed the predominance of members of culturally underrepresented phyla like Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia.

Screening of Rhizobacteria for Their Plant Growth Promotion Ability and Antagonism Against Damping off and Root Rot Diseases of Broad Bean (Vicia faba L.).

Development of microbial inoculants from rhizobacterial isolates with potential for plant growth promotion and root disease suppression require rigorous screening. Fifty-four (54) fluorescent pseudomonads, out of a large collection of rhizobacteria from broad bean fields of 20 different locations within Imphal valley of Manipur, were initially screened for antifungal activity against Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia solani, of diseased roots of broad bean and also three other reference fungal pathogens of plant roots. Fifteen fluorescent pseudomonas isolates produced inhibition zone (8-29 mm) of the fungal growth in dual plate assay and IAA like substances (24.