Visva-Bharati Researchers Discover New Bacteria Named After Tagore
Visva-Bharati Researchers Discover New Beneficial Bacteria And Named It After Rabindranath Tagore
A group of 6 researchers from Visva-Bharati University has discovered a new species of bacteria that has properties beneficial in enhancing plant growth. The bacteria has named as 'Pantoea Tagorei' in honor of India's first Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who is also the founder of Visva-Bharati.
The research team was led by Dr. Bomba Dam, an assistant professor at Microbiology laboratory in the Department of Botany in Visva-Bharati, and assisted by 5 research scholars- Raju Biswas, Arijit Misra, Abhinav Chakraborty, Sandeep Ghosh and Pooja Mukherjee. The findings of the research team have been published in 'Indian Journal of Microbiology'. Their work has also been recognized officially by the Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI).
 |
| Group of Six Researchers |
"The use of chemical fertilizers for cultivation is making the land unusable day by day and therefore, farmers are shifting towards organic farming and organic fertilizers", Bomba Dam said. When Dam and his teammates thought of organic fertilizers, they had to take help of microorganisms, generally some notable bacteria and/or fungus, to boost soil fertility. "There are usually 3 main components in fertilizers that can increase fertility of soil and those are- Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K).", Dam stated.
🔍The researchers said till now work on bacteria capable in nitrogen-fixing has been done extensively in research field and there is also some work on bacteria that can solubilize phosphorous, but there is very less work done on bacteria that make potassium (K) more soluble. Therefore, the research team started work on isolating some bacteria efficient in solubilizing potassium. They thought such bacteria would be available in the places where potassium in soluble form would be less available so that such bacteria can plenish potassium. On the basis of their idea, they collected soil from two places- Sonajhuri forest (in Santiniketan) and the coal mines separately. From the collected soil they successfully isolated two bacterium of their purpose- one from Sonajhuri forest and the other from Jharia coal mines in Jharkhand, according to Raju Biswas who started the research work.
🔍The bacterium collected from soil of Jharia coal mines has some unique properties due which that is capable to not only make potassium more soluble, but also solubilize phosphorus more and replenish nitrogen too. Due its amazing ability it can boost plant growth. To identify the bacterium researchers use biochemical and microbiological tools. After intensive study, they identified that species properties did not match with any known bacterium. So the researchers then used molecular tools for genome sequencing. After the analysis, they confirmed that the species is a new species.
This ground-breaking discovery by the researchers has been widely praised by the Visva-Bharati authority.
Arijit Misra, one of the research scholars in Dr. Dam's lab, has expressed proud feelings to be a part of such a great work. "Proud moment for our lab (Dr. Bomba Dam's lab). Isolated a novel bacteria and named Pantoea tagorei as a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore, first Indian Nobel laureate, and Rabindranath Tagore, an agriculturist.", mentioned Mr. Misra in his X (formerly twitter) account.
%20tweet.jpg)
⧫ Why the bacterium discovered has been named after Rabindranath Tagore?
Dr. B. Dam said they decided to name the bacteria after the name of Nobel laureate Tagore as Tagore tried to promote agriculture to a great extent in his time. He also noted this is the first time any living creature has been named after Rabindranath Tagore. "This is the best way to honor Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and his son Rathindranath Tagore's agricultural pursuits. Tagore sent his son to study agricultural science in Illinois, USA", Dam stated.
.png)
Comments
Post a Comment