Phylogenetic analysis of diverse uncultured eubacterial groups from saline-alkaline soil of basaltic terrain in western Maharashtra, India

The microbial communities of saline-alkaline soil from basaltic terrain in western Maharashtra, India were investigated using culture independent and culture dependent approaches. The bulk community DNA of saline-alkaline soil was isolated and 16S rRNA gene libraries were created. The sequence analysis of the 18 phylotypes from 109 metagenomic clones resulted in sequences from five major soil phyla namely Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Bacteriodetes. In our analysis we could retrieve 16S rRNA gene sequences, displaying 16S rRNA gene sequence homology as low as 83% to any known sequence in the NCBI-GenBank database. The phylogenetic analysis of the metagenomic clones showed the presence of entirely novel microbial lineages in basaltic saline-alkaline soil not retrieved so far in any other study. In our culture dependent analysis of 236 cultured isolates, we could isolate microbes belonging to the 13 microbial genera. Our results suggest that the soil of basaltic region in western Maharashtra harbors novel microbial lineages and can have great biotechnological potential.