Microbial Diversity : Status and Potential Applications/edited by S.C. Tiwari and G.D. Sharma. Guwahati, Scientific Book Centre, 2002, viii, 235 p., tables, figs., $44. ISBN 81- 287-0000-6.

Contents: I. Micro-organisms diversity : 1. Algal diversity in Freshwater Lakes of Schirmacher, Oasis Antarctica/S.P. Shukla. 2. Diversity of Soil Fungi in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary/Yasmeen. 3. Diversity of Fungal Pathogens of Jhumland Agro-Ecosystems and their spatial distribution analysis/G.K.N. Chhetry. 4. Species diversity of Water Borne Conidial Fungi in Freshwater Streams of Kumaun Himalaya, Uttaranchal/S.C. Sati, N. Tiwari and M. Belwal. 5. Diversity of Frankia-actinomycetes among non-leguminous plants/S.C. Tiwari, Prabal Sen and H.K. Sarma. 6. Structural and functional diversity of Bacteria/D.K. Jha, Sucheta Ahanthem and K. Nripande Singh. 7. Microbes in stressed environment/S.K. Ghosh and Alaknanda Patel. II. Tools and techniques for studying microbial diversity: 8. Isolation and characterization of Yeast strains from indigenous starter culture for Alcoholic Fermentation/Hridip Kumar Sarma. 9. Molecular methods for studying the diversity of Filamentous Fungi/J. Latha and Prasun. K. Mukherjee. 10. Methods for detection of micro-organisms: an overview/Jyoti Saxena and Bhakti Bajpai. 11. Methods for studying microbial diversity including molecular techniques/Namita Mittal and J.S. Viridi. III. Potential applications of micro-organisms: 12. Bioconversion of Magnifera indica saw dust for the production of Single Cell Protein (SCP) and Citric Acid/Sanjay Gupta, A.K. Lakhani and Chandra B. Sharma. 13. Antimicrobial activities of selected plants of the family Verbenaceae in Dindigul District (T.N.), South India/S. Karuppasamy, N. Karmegam and K.M. Rajasekharan. 14. Biodiversity amongst actinomycetes for their Chitinolytic potential/N.N. Nawani, S.K. Augustine and B.P. Kapadnis. 15. Mushroom diversity in environmental protection, industrial and rural development/B.L. Dhar and O.P. Ahlawat. 16. Prospects of Mushroom Cottage-Industries in New State of Uttaranchal/P.S. Negi and Narendra Kumar. 17. Biopesticidal management of plant diseases/Padmanabh Dwivedi and S.K. Dwivedi.

"The diversity status of micro organisms may be defined in terms of variations in morphological, physiological and genetic characteristics apart from habitat diversity. The size of the microbial world has been appreciated recently despite its indispensable role in human welfare and environment protection since time unmemorable. There has been a tremendous effort on to explore the vastness of the microbial diversity through traditional cultivation techniques and the inability of many micro-organisms to respond in a particular culture substrate possess a major setback in this field of research. However, new techniques based on important molecular markers (nucleic acid probes and fatty acid profiles) enabled to overcome the problems of uncultivable microbes to isolate and identify from different natural habitats and other disturbed environments.

"This book, Microbial Diversity: Status and Potential Application is an attempt to bring the present scenario of research and development activities related to microbial solation, cultivation and identification techniques, exploitation and economic importance apart from their role in environment protection. The book is based on invited articles from eminent researchers and experts of the country actively engaged in different areas related to microbial research and their applications. The entire book is divided into three sections, Section 1 on Micro-organisms Diversity, Section 2 on Tools and Techniques for Studying Microbial Diversity and Section 3 on Potential Applications of micro-organisms

"Section 1 gives an overall view of microbial diversity status on different habitats ranging from algal diversity in Antarctica fresh lakes to fungal diversity in natural forest soil, jhum lands and in stressed environments. Section 2 is an important part of the book describing the present trends of the tools and techniques employed for microbial diversity from all kinds of habitats. Modern molecular based techniques such as use of nucleic acid probes (isolation of DNA, rDNA and 16S RNA), fatty acid profiles (FAMES and PLFA) and epiflouresence microscopy and starter culture techniques for isolation of yeast strains are discussed in detailed. Section 3 is devoted to the potential applications of micro-organisms in various fields such as production of single cell proteins (SCP) from microbial biocatalysis, identification of antimicrobial activity of plants, chitinolytic importance of actinomycetes and biopesticidal management of plant diseases. This section also covers the role of mushroom fungi in socio-economic development of the society in addition to their role in environment protection, industrial and rural development activities." (jacket)

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