Biochemical and physiological characteristics of actinomycetes isolated from high altitude shola soils of tropical Montane forest

Actinomycetes are gram-positive, free-living, saprophytic bacteria widely distributed in soil, water and colonizing plants showing marked chemical and morphological diversity. They are potential source of many bioactive compounds, which have diverse clinical effects and important applications in human medicine. In the present work, we have studied some of the physiological and biochemical characteristics of 36 actinomycete strains isolated from the shola soils of tropical montane forest; a relatively unexplored biodiversity hotspot. Ability of actinomycetes isolates to ferment and produce acids from various carbohydrate sources such as innositol, mannose, sorbitol, galactose, mannitol, xylose, rhamnose, arabinose, lactose and fructose were studied. Almost all the carbon compounds were utilized by one or other actinomycete isolates. The most preferred carbon sources were found to be xylose (94.44%) followed by fructose and mannose (91.66%). Only 41.76% of the isolates were able to ferment lactose. The ability of actinomycetes isolates to decompose protein and amino acid differ considerably. 72.22% of the isolates were able to decompose milk protein casein and 61.11% of the isolates decompose tyrosine. Only 8.33% of the strains were able to decompose amino acid hypoxanthine and none of them were able to decompose amino acid xanthine. Potential of the actinomycetes isolates to reduce esculin, urea and hippurate and to resist lysozyme was also checked. 91.66% of the isolates showed ability to decompose esculin and 63.88% of the isolates had the capacity to produce urease and to decompose urea. Only 25% of the isolate were able to decompose hippurate and 94.44% showed lysozyme resistance

Synthesis of High Coercivity Cobalt Nanotubes with Acetate Precursors and Elucidation of the Mechanism of Growth

Cobalt nanotubes (CoNTs) with very high longitudinal coercivity were prepared by electrodeposition of cobalt acetate for the first time by using anodized alumina (AAO) template. They were then characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Formation of a highly ordered hexagonal cobalt phase is observed. Room temperature SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) magnetometer measurements indicate that the easy axis of magnetization is parallel to the nanotube axis. These CoNTs exhibit very high longitudinal coercivity of ∼820 Oe. A very high intertubular interaction resulting from magnetostatic dipolar interaction between nanotubes is observed. Thick-walled nanotubes were also fabricated by using cobalt acetate tetrahydrate precursors. A plausible mechanism for the formation of CoNTs based on mobility assisted growth is proposed. The role of the hydration layer and the mobility of metal ions are elucidated in the case of the growth mechanism of one-dimensional geometry