A study on organo-sulfur tolerant bacterial strains from extremophilic coal mine environment- isolation and growth factors

Abstract

<span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:="" "times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">Present study describes the isolation of three organo-sulfur tolerant microbial strains designated NA-1, NA-2 and OF-SD (isolated at pH 7) from samples of Assam (India) coal mines. NA-1, NA-2 and OF-SD were tested positive for utilization of ~100mM thiophene and ~50 mM each of phenyl disulphide and dibenzothiophene in presence of media with extremely good growth pattern (generation time). Of the three strains, OF-SD characterized as <i>Bacillus thioparans</i> by >1200bp 16S ribosomal RNA partial gene sequencing was having an excellent <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">generation time of 0.6h. These bacterial isolates are now tested for their ability to degrade the sulfur inclusions in coal, which will be further beneficial for industrial aspects.</span></span>