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Indian Journal of Microbiology logoLink to Indian Journal of Microbiology
. 2009 Apr 21;49(1):89–97. doi: 10.1007/s12088-009-0009-x

Cyanobacterial diversity in the rhizosphere of rice and its ecological significance

Radha Prasanna 1,✉, Pranita Jaiswal 1, Saswati Nayak 1, Anjuli Sood 1, Brahma D Kaushik 2
PMCID: PMC3450053  PMID: 23100756

Abstract

This investigation was undertaken to characterize the abundance and genera-wise diversity of cyanobacteria in the rice rhizosphere and nitrogen-fixing ability of the isolated strains. The cyanobacterial strains belonging to the genera Nostoc and Anabaena comprised 80% of the rhizosphere isolates, which were also efficient in enhancing the germination and growth of wheat seeds and exhibited significantly high protein accumulation and IAA production. Distinct profiles for the cyanobacterial strains were obtained on amplification with extended Hip 1 primer — HipTG, indicative of the diversity among these strains. Our investigation helped in identifying promising cyanobacterial isolates from the rhizosphere of rice, which can be utilized in developing efficient plant growth promoting cyanobacterial inoculants.

Keywords: Cyanobacteria, Nitrogenase activity, Rhizosphere, PCR profiles

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