Sundarbans, the world’s largest tidal mangrove forest, lies in the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers. The ecosystem is dynamic and the biodiversity is enormously rich. The debris and the waste materials generated by local industry as well as domestic sources flowing through the rivers accumulate in this deltaic region. This detritus-based hugely productive ecosystem supplies large amounts of organic substances to the resident organisms and builds up a productive ecosystem. Mangroves are one of the striking sources of microbial diversity. Microbes have been explored as a potential source of bioactive compounds for novel pharmaceutical applications. Till date, very little work has been carried out on the microbial diversity of the Sundarbans. Few attempts have been made to explore the culturable and un-culturable microorganisms of this ecosystem. Till date, two novel species, Streptomyces sundarbansensis sp. nov. and Streptomyces euryhalinus sp. nov., have been reported from this region. Several other actinomycetes were also isolated and a few bioactive compounds have been purified. Moreover, industrially important enzymes such as protease, esterase, and ribonucleases have been purified and characterized from bacteria isolated from the Sundarbans. Many halophilic cyanobacterial strains have been isolated; among them, Oxynema aestuarii sp. nov. was reported as a new cyanobacterial species. Further, the diversity of un-culturable bacteria and archaea of the Sundarbans have been explored by applying the metagenomic approach, and the sequence data have been analyzed using bioinformatics tools. Several studies have documented Proteobacteria as the dominant phylum, while Firmicutes, Chloroflexi, Planctomycetes, and Actinobacteria were found seasonally at different locations of the mangrove forest. Looking into the dynamic microbial community composition, the Sundarbans ecosystem has a great potential for the discovery of novel microbial species and deliver bioactive compounds for industrial, medical, and environmental applications.

SEM studies on a mangrove rust of Sundarbans, Eastern India.

Microbial Diversity of the Sundarbans, the World’s Largest Tidal Mangrove Forest, and Its Bioprospects

The rust genus Skierka belonging to the phylum Basidiomycota was described in 1900 by Raciborski with Skierka canarii as the type species. The published literature on this rust genus reveals its ambiguity in taxonomic placement. It was challenging to taxonomically delineate and precisely identify each species within this genus due to the species sharing some common characteristics. The latest studies based on morphology taxonomy and molecular characteristics, however, have solved this puzzle now and placed this genus in its new family Skierkaceae. To understand all about the genus Skierka, this compilation was carried out to unveil the general characteristics, history, diversity, distribution, ecology, morphology and molecular taxonomy of different species of Skierka. After exploring 14 species of Skierka, it was observed that this genus is distributed in seven plant families in 19 countries all over the world. The genus appears to be well-represented in Asian and South American counties. This rust has not been reported from any European countries to date. The morpho-taxonomy of all species is well studied, but molecular analyses are still required. Only two species of the genus namely S. robusta and S. diploglottidis were identified based molecular analyses. Therefore, further studies should be focused on epitypifying the taxa that are too old and updating their taxonomy based on molecular, biochemical, and physiological aspects along with morphological characteristics. Multiple analytical methods should be considered when dealing with multi-locus datasets. This will increase our understanding of the diversity, distribution, and identification of these rust fungi.

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SEM studies on a mangrove rust of Sundarbans, Eastern India.

Citations

Microbial Diversity of the Sundarbans, the World’s Largest Tidal Mangrove Forest, and Its Bioprospects

A Comprehensive Account of the Rust Genus Skierka (Skierkaceae)

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