Phylogenetical Characterization of Cyanobacteria from Paddy Field of Chhattisgarh (part I)

With respect to Chhattisgarh, rice is the principal crop of the state. India Covers 66% of cultivable land and mostly grown under kharif cropping season. To increase sustained productivity without decreasing soil quality, algal bio fertilizers are used widely now days in the state. Use of local isolates as algal inoculants is being stressed due to their competitiveness in the field for establishment of better ecological adaptability for developing composite starter. Culture of algal bio fertilizer programme on a regional basis, survey, isolation and screening of stress-tolerant cyanobacteria have been started at various parts of India. The soils of Chhattisgarh state comprise mostly of ironrich red soil, laterite soil, and red and yellow soil and brown forest soil. So the above study comprises the characterization of physical and chemical properties collected from 4 districts of Chhattisgarh state. INTRODUCTION: Cyanobacteria also referred as bluegreen algae are the pioneer oxygenic phototrophs on earth whose distribution around the world is suppressed only by bacteria. Fossil evidence points to their presence in geographically diverse regions during the pre-cambrian (2 to more than 3.5 billions years ago). They are the large morphologically diverse group of phototrophic prokaryote, which occur in almost every habitat on earth. This versatility may explain the remarkable lack of morphological (and presumably physiological) change seen in 3.5 billion years old fossilized cyanobacteria and their modern day counterparts. Their long evolution history has been marked by key geographical and biotic transitions including the creation of oxygenic photosynthesis, a prerequisite for the development of proliferation of metabolically complex microbial and higher eukaryotic life forms 1, . They are very close to bacteria than higher plants. Cells are generally blue-green to violet but sometimes red or green. The green of the chlorophyll is masked by the blue accessory pigment phycocyanin. These pigments lie in phycobilisoms, which lie on thylakoid. Their cell walls are made of amino sugars and amino acids. Flagella are completely absent and the moment in the members is accomplished by gliding motion 3, . Their evolutionary antiquity and ability to fix CO2 using water as an electron donor provided them with a decisive edge over other microbes to dominate the biosphere in the past and inhabit extreme environmental niches. Majority of the extinct species of cyanobacteria are obligate photoautotrophs, though a small fraction is mixotroph. The light dark cycle is perhaps the most significant and persistent selection agent that has shaped the physiology of photoautotrophs all through their origin and evolution. This clearly points to a dominant role of diuranal rhythm on regulation of the mode of carbon utilization in cyanobacteria .