Diversity of cold tolerant phosphate solubilizing microorganisms from North Western Himalayas

Abstract

The environmental conditions on planet earth are extremely diverse, with enormous variations in pressure, pH, temperature and salt concentration. All these environments are inhabited by living organisms, particularly microorganisms which have adapted to the different extremes of environments. Among various extreme environments, low temperature is very common both in natural and man-made environments. Microorganisms play a significant role for maintaining the ecological balance in any ecosystem. During the long journey of evolution, they have undergone changes at different levels for adaptation and thus show huge genetic diversity for exploration. Extremely low temperature environments are generally inhabited by the cold adapted microorganisms which have the ability to grow and survive under harsh conditions. These cold adapted microorganisms, known as cold loving (psychrophiles) and …