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Calcite Precipitation by Rhodococcus sp. Isolated from Kotumsar Cave, Chhattisgarh, India


Affiliations
1 Environmental Studies, School of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi 110 068, India
2 Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar 125 001, India
 

The precipitation of carbonate minerals by Rhodococcus sp. strain S14 isolated from Kotumsar cave, Chhattisgarh, India is reported. The speleothems at Kotumsar showed high microbial cell enumeration on B4 agar; iron agar (3.4 x 105 CFU/g) and sulphite agar (7.2 x 102 CFU/g). National Centre for Biotechnology Information database was used for the BLASTn sequence search of 16S rRNA sequences. The S14 strain gave similarity scores of ≥99% with the respective organisms on the database. The strain was identified as Rhodococcus sp. Culture experiments performed using the isolated strains suggested that the rate of precipitation was dependent on pH, temperature and bacterial growth. Rhodococcus sp. S14 strain induced the formation of calcite in vitro and the biominerals produced were calcified spherulites with pores (as imaged with SEM). The precipitate, at the end of the experimental period of 35 days, had the appearance of coccoliths. This is the initial report on the possible involvement of Rhodococcus sp. in the precipitation of carbonates at Kotumsar cave.

Keywords

Biocalcification, Cave Geomicrobiology, Precipitation, Rhodococcus sp.
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  • Calcite Precipitation by Rhodococcus sp. Isolated from Kotumsar Cave, Chhattisgarh, India

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Authors

Sushmitha Baskar
Environmental Studies, School of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi 110 068, India
Swati Chalia
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar 125 001, India
Ramanathan Baskar
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar 125 001, India

Abstract


The precipitation of carbonate minerals by Rhodococcus sp. strain S14 isolated from Kotumsar cave, Chhattisgarh, India is reported. The speleothems at Kotumsar showed high microbial cell enumeration on B4 agar; iron agar (3.4 x 105 CFU/g) and sulphite agar (7.2 x 102 CFU/g). National Centre for Biotechnology Information database was used for the BLASTn sequence search of 16S rRNA sequences. The S14 strain gave similarity scores of ≥99% with the respective organisms on the database. The strain was identified as Rhodococcus sp. Culture experiments performed using the isolated strains suggested that the rate of precipitation was dependent on pH, temperature and bacterial growth. Rhodococcus sp. S14 strain induced the formation of calcite in vitro and the biominerals produced were calcified spherulites with pores (as imaged with SEM). The precipitate, at the end of the experimental period of 35 days, had the appearance of coccoliths. This is the initial report on the possible involvement of Rhodococcus sp. in the precipitation of carbonates at Kotumsar cave.

Keywords


Biocalcification, Cave Geomicrobiology, Precipitation, Rhodococcus sp.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv114%2Fi05%2F1063-1074