Deciphering the advanced methodology to investigate the survival of A. sphaerica in iron enriched region of Chhattisgarh

• Main Authors: Kikku Kunui, Satya Shila Singh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Science Planet Inc. 2017-10-01
• Series: Canadian Journal of Biotechnology
• Online Access: https://www.canadianjbiotech.com/CAN_J_BIOTECH/Archives/v1/Special Issue/cjb.2017-a111.pdf

Cyanobacteria are among those tremendous microbial community that adds both aesthetic and ethnic value to the nature. They majorly contribute as a primary producer via photosynthesis due to the presence of various photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, carotenoids, and phycobillisomes) and nitrogen fixation. Apart from this, cyanobacteria also work differently from the league because they bear enormous plasticity in their nature and can survive in the most extreme situations such as saline, thermocline environment, metal and heavy metal prone environment, etc. Iron, one of the second most abundant metal, third most limiting nutrient and fourth most abundant trace element that achieves equal position to that of macro element because of its contribution in all the vital life supporting activities such as photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation and electron transport chain mechanism. The availability and unavailability of iron leads to production of ROS within the cell which is directly linked to an oxidative stress via Haber weiss reaction and Fentons mechanism. So to assess the iron induced stress in cyanobacteria, soils from different locations of Chhattisgarh, have been tested for iron concentration by using Atomic Absorbtion Spectrophotometry (AAS). Then, number of cyanobacterial species was isolated from Turkadih, Bilaspur, and Chhattisgarh having highest iron concentration (140 ppm). They were treated with different concentrations of iron (0, 20, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 μM FeCl3). Result suggested that only Anabaena sphaerica a filamentous, heterocystous cyanobacterium could survive up to 100 μM FeCl3 (5 times higher concentration as is used for standard growth medium) and rest of the concentrations were found to be lethal for all the cyanobacterial species. The alterations in morphological, physiological and biochemical attributes were assessed and investigated. Further, proteome analysis (2D- Gel Electrophoresis) of A. sphaerica suggested that some unique proteins need proper investigation via MALDI-TOF. Concisely, it can be said that this part of research creates an interest to investigate at higher and advanced level for the most iron tolerant species isolated from the iron enriched region of Chhattisgarh.