Abstract:

‘Sacred groves’ represents a traditional effort to conserve biodiversity. They are rich patches of undisturbed forests and serve as a natural habitat for many endemic, rare, primitive and economically valuable organisms representing a micro-level biodiversity hotspots. In this study, Bacillus spp. and related genera characterized from native soils of the pristine sacred groves of Meghalaya, India revealed dominance of Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Lysinibacillus and Viridibacillus. All the isolates exhibited good plant growth promoting traits when screened for traits like phosphate solubilization, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase and catalase activity, production of auxin, siderophores, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia. Bacteria native to the pristine niche of sacred groves showed better plant growth promoting activities as compared to isolates from disturbed forest as well as type strains implicating the importance of sacred groves and their potential role in microbial diversity conservation.