Search

The article offers information on a survey conducted among scientists in Indian university on the preferred peer-review policies of academic journals which revealed that majority of scientists supported the double-blinded peer review as it provides a fair chance to share scientific ideas.

Hundung Limestone habitat, Manipur, India is an unexplored site for microbial diversity studies. Using polyphasic taxonomy, a Streptomyces strain, MBRL 172(T), has been characterized. The strain was found to show highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Streptomyces coeruleofuscus NBRC 12757(T) (99.2 %). The DNA relatedness between MBRL 172(T) and S. coeruleofuscus NBRC 12757(T), and between MBRL 172(T) and Streptomyces nogalater NBRC 13445(T), were 36.8 ± 4.4 and 52.5 ± 2.7 %, respectively. Strain MBRL 172(T) was found to contain LL-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid and glucose, mannose and xylose as the major sugars in whole cell hydrolysates. The polar lipids in the cell membrane were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylinositolmannoside. The predominant menaquinones detected were MK-9(H6) and MK-9(H8). The cellular fatty acids identified were mainly saturated fatty acids: anteiso-C15:0, iso-C16:0 and iso-C15:0. Based on differences in the biochemical and molecular characteristics from its closest relatives, the strain can be proposed to represent a novel taxon in the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces canchipurensis is proposed, with the type strain MBRL 172(T) (=JCM 17575(T) = KCTC 29105(T)).

A novel Gram-stain-positive bacterium, designated strain YIM M11385(T), was isolated from a marine sediment sample collected from the South Bay, Little Andaman Island, India with a salinity of 35 p.p.m., pH 8.5. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain YIM M11385(T) belongs to the genus Marininema, supported by a bootstrap value of 100 %. The taxonomic position of this organism was further established by using a polyphasic approach. Strain YIM M11385(T) grew optimally at 28 °C, pH 7.0 and in the presence of 0-5 % (w/v) NaCl. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity between strain YIM M11385(T) and Marininema mesophilum SCSIO 10219(T) was 98.3 %. Strain YIM M11385(T) exhibited a quinone system with only MK-7, the polar lipid profile included diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine as major components, and the major fatty acids were anteiso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 0, anteiso-C17 : 0 and iso-C16 : 0. The level of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain YIM M11385(T) and M. mesophilum SCSIO 10219(T) was 59.36 %. On the basis of genotypic and phenotypic data, it is apparent that strain YIM M11385(T) represents a novel species of the genus Marininema, for which the name Marininema halotolerans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YIM M11385(T) ( = CCTCC AB 2012052(T) = DSM 45789(T)). In addition, we propose that the description of the genus Marininema should be further emended based on the results of the present study.