Browsing by Author "Babita Sharma"

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A comparative analysis of heavy metal bioaccumulation and functional gene annotation towards multiple metal resistant potential by Ochrobactrum intermedium BPS-20 and Ochrobactrum ciceri BPS-26
(Elsevier Ltd, 2021) Babita Sharma; Pratyoosh Shukla
The present study describes the heavy metal bioaccumulation potential of Ochrobactrum intermedium BPS-20 and Ochrobactrum ciceri BPS-26. A total of 27 isolates were retrieved from the soils of industrial areas and these two were selected based on their maximum metal tolerance. They can resist up to 2400 mg/L and 2000 mg/L of Lead and 850 mg/L and 1200 mg/L of Nickel respectively. The atomic absorption spectroscopic analysis showed considerably good bioaccumulation by O. intermedium BPS-20 (85.34% and 74.87%) and O. ciceri BPS-26 (71.20% and 88.48%) for Lead and Nickel respectively. The growth rate studies also demonstrated no inhibitory effects of heavy metals in the medium. Further the SEM analysis showed the presence of extracellular polymeric substances around bacterial cells. Moreover, the functional gene annotation confirmed the presence of ATPase, ABC, and HoxN/HupN/NixA families of transporters. Thus, both the isolates provide a better solution for the removal of metal pollutants. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Biodiversity and biotechnological applications of rhizomicrobiome for agricultural, environmental and industrial sustainability
(Elsevier, 2024) Divjot Kour; Simranjeet Kaur; Tanvir Kaur; Babita Sharma; Rajeshwari Negi; Sofia Sharief Khan; Imran Sheikh; Damini Maithani; Harpreet Kour; Seema Ramniwas; Sarvesh Rustagi; Ashok Yadav; Neelam Thakur; Ajar Nath Yadav; Amrik Singh Ahluwalia
A century of incremental research along with the technological advances and need for sustainable agricultural practices, the study of beneficial rhizomicrobiomes has increased. Rhizomicrobiomes have emerged as an important and promising tool for sustainable agriculture. These plant associated microbiomes play a major role in plant growth promotion by direct and indirect mechanisms and are generally referred to as plant growth promoting microbes. Plant growth promoting microbes also act as the stress alleviators for plants by increasing the accumulation of the osmolytes, reducing the inhibitory ethylene concentrations and producing reactive oxygen species scavengers. These beneficial microbes can be applied to the plants as biofertilizers and biopesticides to reduce the use of the harmful chemicals as well as for the amelioration of abiotic stresses. The present chapter describes the functional diversity of the rhizomicrobiomes, their agricultural and environmental applications further highlighting their role in industrial sector. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Biodiversity, mechanisms, and potential biotechnological applications of minerals solubilizing extremophilic microbes: A review
(Open Science Publishers LLP Inc., 2024) Rubee Devi; Tanvir Kaur; Rajeshwari Negi; Babita Sharma; Sohini Chowdhury; Monit Kapoor; Sangram Singh; Sarvesh Rustagi; Sheikh Shreaz; Pankaj Kumar Rai; Ashutosh Kumar Rai; Ashok Yadav; Divjot Kour; Ajar Nath Yadav
The earth’s surface consists of arid, semi-arid, and hyper-arid lands, where life is profoundly challenged by harsh conditions such as temperature fluctuations, water scarcity, high levels of solar radiations, and soil salinity. The harsh environmental conditions pose serious consequences on plant survival, growth, and productivity accessibility of nutrients reduces. To cope with the harsh environments and increase plant productivity, an extremophilic microbe has attracted agriculturists and environmentalists. The extremophilic microbes, adapted to extreme environmental conditions, offer an unexploited reservoir for biofertilizers, which could provide various forms of nutrients and alleviate the stress caused by the abiotic factors in an environment friendly manner. Worldwide, minerals solubilizing extremophilic microbes are distributed in various hotspots and belong to three domains of life including, archaea, bacteria, and eukarya. The minerals solubilizing extremophilic microbes belongs to diverse phyla, namely, Ascomycota, Actinobacteria, Basidiomycota, Bacteroidetes, Crenarchaeota, Deinococcus-Thermus, Euryarchaeota, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. Mineral solubilizing extremophilic microbes achieve the mineral solubilization of phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and selenium by secreting special compounds such as organic acid, exopolysaccharides, and different enzymes. Consequently, extremophilic microbes are becoming increasingly important in agriculture, industries and environmental biotechnology as well, paving the way for novel sequencing technologies and “metaomics” methods, including metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metaproteomics. The extremophilic microbial diversity and their biotechnological application in agriculture and industrial applications will be a milestone for future needs. The present review deals with biodiversity, mechanisms and potential biotechnological applications of minerals solubilizing extremophilic microbes. © 2024 Rubee Devi, et al.
Characteristics of earthquake ground motions governing the damage potential for Delhi and the surrounding region of India
(Elsevier Ltd, 2023) Himanshu Mittal; Babita Sharma; Sandeep; Ambikapathy Ammani
The proximity of Delhi and the surrounding region to the active faults along with its geographical settings is a subject of discussion to comprehend the seismic resilience of the capital region of India. The region may be affected by the far-field earthquakes from the Himalayas as well as the near-field earthquakes associated with the local seismic activity. Considering the ordinary settings of this region, the present study is an insight to differentiate the damage potential of ground motion associated with near and far-field conditions to further see their consequences to understand the comprehensive seismic hazard of the region. The acceleration and velocity response analysis of recorded strong ground motions from far-field and near-field earthquakes exhibit a clear distinct behavior in the form of amplification and corresponding predominant period. The comparison of estimated normalized spectral accelerations with that of the seismic design code of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), shows that the current Indian building design code is within the structural limits proposed for the seismic forces of long periods, however, exceeded amplitude of the normalized Spectral Acceleration for far-field earthquakes may be attributed towards the damage potential for the high rise buildings in the capital region of India. On the other hand, near-field earthquakes do not meet the criteria with the design code of BIS at lower periods from 0.02s to 0.09s along with the amplified Spectral acceleration. It also suggests that the structural heterogeneities within the subsurface of Delhi and the surrounding region have a strong bearing in contributing to the impact of seismic waves from near-field earthquakes producing short-period waves that may be disastrous for low-rise buildings. Based on the results, the study region affected by the distinct seismicity patterns is important to understand the shaking behavior of the different kinds of infrastructures/buildings in case of near-field and far-field earthquakes to appropriately utilize the information for constructing new buildings and strengthening the existing infrastructures in Delhi and the surrounding region of India. © 2023 The Authors
Combinatorial genetic engineering approaches in phytoremediation of pollutants
(Elsevier, 2022) Babita Sharma; Twinkle Chaudhary; Pratyoosh Shukla
Phytoremediation is the most widely applied approach for the removal of toxic pollutants. It has achieved great attention due to its environmentally friendly and cost effective nature. Several analytical tools have been developed that provide insight into selecting and optimizing remediation processes mediated by plant species. The limitations associated with the phytoremediation process accomplished through gene editing and transgenic technology. These tools have been successfully applied to manipulate the genetic material of plants for the uptake, transport, and sequestration of pollutants present in the rhizospheric zone. A better understanding of the plant mechanisms of bioremediation will lead to the creation of unique transgenic plants with desired remediation characters. The current chapter explores the various strategies applied by plant cells to stabilize, extract, degrade, or volatilize pollutants. The importance of modern genetic engineering tools is also elaborated toward the betterment of phytoremediation ability. The genetic engineering of metal-binding proteins, chelating agents, and transporters proteins etc. has been discussed here. The critical roles of endophytes associated with plants have also been explained with some good examples. Additionally, the phytoremediation of herbicides, heavy metal ions, and organic compounds has also been discussed with some case studies. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Earthquake Genesis and Earthquake Early Warning Systems: Challenges and a Way Forward
(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2022) Roshan Kumar; Himanshu Mittal; Sandeep; Babita Sharma
Abstract: Several natural hazards, including earthquakes, may trigger disasters and the presence of disaster drivers further lead to the massive loss of life and property, every year around the world. The earthquakes are unavoidable, as exact earthquake prediction in terms of date, and time is difficult. However, with the advancement in technology, earthquake early warning (EEW) has emerged as a life-saving guard in many earthquake-prone countries. Unlike other warning systems (where hours of warning are possible), only a few seconds of warning is possible in the EEW system, but this warning may be very helpful in saving human lives by taking the proper action. The concept of EEW relies on using the initial few seconds of information from nearby instruments, performing basic calculations, and issuing the warning to the farther areas. A dense network or enough network coverage is the backbone of an EEW system. Because of insufficient station coverage, the estimated earthquake location is error-prone, which in turn may cause problems for EEW in terms of estimating strong shaking for the affected areas. Seismic instrumentation for EEW has improved significantly in the last few years considering the station coverage, data quality, and related applications. Many countries including the USA, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea have developed EEW systems and are issuing a warning to the public and authorities. Several other countries, namely China, Turkey, Italy, and India are in process of developing and testing the EEW system. This article discusses the challenges and future EEW systems developed around the world along with different parameters used for EEW. Article Highlights: This article aims to provide a comprehensive review related to the developmentThe explicit emphasis is on the scientific development of EEW parametersThe challenges and future scopes for the effective implementation of EEWS are discussed in terms of the correct location, the magnitude estimation, the region-specific use of ground motion prediction equations, communication technologies, and general public awareness © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
Effect of indigenous mineral availing microbial consortia and cattle manure combination for growth of maize (Zea mays L.)
(Springer, 2024) Rubee Devi; Marwa Fadhil Alsaffar; Duraid K.A. AL-Taey; Sanjeev Kumar; Rajeshwari Negi; Babita Sharma; Sangram Singh; Ashutosh Kumar Rai; Sarvesh Rustagi; Ashok Yadav; Tanvir Kaur; Divjot Kour; Ajar Nath Yadav; Amrik Singh Ahluwalia
Plant growth promoting bacterial strains were used as bioinoculants on cereal crops to improve plant growth and plant productivity. Crop responses to inoculation are complex because bacteria are not compatible with each other. Therefore, it is necessary to increase our understanding of the microbial ecology of crop rhizosphere under various agricultural techniques. In tropical agriculture, cattle manure is used as an organic fertilizer to increase soil fertility, however use of microbes as consortium have found as sustainable method for the enhancement of crops productivity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of three potential plant growth-promoting rhizospheric and endophytic bacterial strains EU-C3ST.R1, IARI-JR-44, and IARI-S-45 and organic fertilizers (cattle manure) individually and as consortia on maize (Zea mays L.) under both in-vitro and in-vivo conditions. A total of 123 bacterial strains were sorted out and screened for nitrogen fixation, phosphorus, and potassium solubilization. The potential N2-fixing; P and K solubilizing bacterial strains were identified using 16 S rRNA gene sequencing as Pseudomonas sp. EU-C3ST.R1, Micrococcus indicus IARI-JR-44, and Bacillus horikoshii IARI-S-45 respectively. The inoculation of these three strains on maize as microbial consortium and individual inoculum significantly increased the growth characteristic including height and biomass of the plants, as well as physiological characteristics i.e., chlorophyll, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics, and total soluble sugar content of the plant with respect to chemical fertilizers, cattle manure, and untreated control plant. The consortia were found to be more effective with respect to individual inoculants, cattle manure, and uninoculated control plants, so it can be utilized as biofertilizers for inoculation of cereal crops growing in hilly regions. © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Society for Plant Research 2024.
Effect of indigenous mineral availing microbial consortia and cattle manure combination for growth of maize (Zea mays L.)
(Springer, 2025) Rubee Devi; Marwa Fadhil Fadhil Alsaffar; Duraid K.A. Altaey; Sanjeev Kumar; Rajeshwari Negi; Babita Sharma; Sangram N. Singh; Ashutosh Kumar Rai; Sarvesh Rustagi; Ashok Yadav; Tanvir Kaur; Divjot KOUR; Ajar Nath Yadav; Amrik Singh Ahluwalia
Plant growth promoting bacterial strains were used as bioinoculants on cereal crops to improve plant growth and plant productivity. Crop responses to inoculation are complex because bacteria are not compatible with each other. Therefore, it is necessary to increase our understanding of the microbial ecology of crop rhizosphere under various agricultural techniques. In tropical agriculture, cattle manure is used as an organic fertilizer to increase soil fertility, however use of microbes as consortium have found as sustainable method for the enhancement of crops productivity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of three potential plant growth-promoting rhizospheric and endophytic bacterial strains EU-C3ST.R1, IARI-JR-44, and IARI-S-45 and organic fertilizers (cattle manure) individually and as consortia on maize (Zea mays L.) under both in-vitro and in-vivo conditions. A total of 123 bacterial strains were sorted out and screened for nitrogen fixation, phosphorus, and potassium solubilization. The potential N2-fixing; P and K solubilizing bacterial strains were identified using 16 S rRNA gene sequencing as Pseudomonas sp. EU-C3ST.R1, Micrococcus indicus IARI-JR-44, and Bacillus horikoshii IARI-S-45 respectively. The inoculation of these three strains on maize as microbial consortium and individual inoculum significantly increased the growth characteristic including height and biomass of the plants, as well as physiological characteristics i.e., chlorophyll, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics, and total soluble sugar content of the plant with respect to chemical fertilizers, cattle manure, and untreated control plant. The consortia were found to be more effective with respect to individual inoculants, cattle manure, and uninoculated control plants, so it can be utilized as biofertilizers for inoculation of cereal crops growing in hilly regions. © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Society for Plant Research 2024.
Microbes Mediated Nutrient Dynamics for Plant Growth Promotion: Current Research and Future Challenges
(Springer, 2024) Rubee Devi; Tanvir Kaur; Rajeshwari Negi; Babita Sharma; Sanjeev Kumar; Sangram Singh; Ashutosh Kumar Rai; Sarvesh Rustagi; Ashok Yadav; Anu Kumar; Divjot Kour; Ajar Nath Yadav
On earth, soil is one of the most essential parts of nature which plays critical roles in plant growth, water flow, waste products recycling and provides habitats to various organisms. Soil is the combination of organic matter, air, water minerals, and sixteen different essential nutrient elements which are categorized into primary macronutrients, secondary macronutrients, and micronutrients. The nutrients elements present in soil either in organic forms or organic forms interchanged by the various microbial mechanisms such including fixation, chelation and solubilization. The microbes from all three domain i.e., archaea, bacteria, and eukarya have been reported for exhibiting the various mechanisms and strain belonging to genera Arthrobacter, Burkholderia, Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, Natrinema, and Serratia are widely known for ruling the nutrients dynamics. The microbes playing role in nutrients dynamics, have great economic importance in agriculture sector as agriculturist is in pressure of producing high quality and quantity of food along with managing the sustainability. These microbes could solve agricultural problems such as soil degradation and environmental pollution by using them as bio-fertilizer over chemical-based products. A huge number of reports have supported such statements so, the purpose of the present review aims to complies microbial role in all category nutrients dynamics and their role in plant growth promotion. © Association of Microbiologists of India 2024.
Microbes Mediated Nutrient Dynamics for Plant Growth Promotion: Current Research and Future Challenges
(Springer, 2025) Rubee Devi; Tanvir Kaur; Rajeshwari Negi; Babita Sharma; Sanjeev Raj Kumar; Sangram N. Singh; Ashutosh Kumar Rai; Sarvesh Rustagi; Ashok Yadav; Anu Kumar; Divjot KOUR; Ajar Nath Yadav
On earth, soil is one of the most essential parts of nature which plays critical roles in plant growth, water flow, waste products recycling and provides habitats to various organisms. Soil is the combination of organic matter, air, water minerals, and sixteen different essential nutrient elements which are categorized into primary macronutrients, secondary macronutrients, and micronutrients. The nutrients elements present in soil either in organic forms or organic forms interchanged by the various microbial mechanisms such including fixation, chelation and solubilization. The microbes from all three domain i.e., archaea, bacteria, and eukarya have been reported for exhibiting the various mechanisms and strain belonging to genera Arthrobacter, Burkholderia, Bacillus, Paenibacillus, Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, Natrinema, and Serratia are widely known for ruling the nutrients dynamics. The microbes playing role in nutrients dynamics, have great economic importance in agriculture sector as agriculturist is in pressure of producing high quality and quantity of food along with managing the sustainability. These microbes could solve agricultural problems such as soil degradation and environmental pollution by using them as bio-fertilizer over chemical-based products. A huge number of reports have supported such statements so, the purpose of the present review aims to complies microbial role in all category nutrients dynamics and their role in plant growth promotion. © Association of Microbiologists of India 2024.
Plant endophytes: unveiling hidden applications toward agro-environment sustainability
(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2024) Rajeshwari Negi; Babita Sharma; Sanjeev Kumar; Kundan Kumar Chaubey; Tanvir Kaur; Rubee Devi; Ashok Yadav; Divjot Kour; Ajar Nath Yadav
Endophytic microbes are plant-associated microorganisms that reside in the interior tissue of plants without causing damage to the host plant. Endophytic microbes can boost the availability of nutrient for plant by using a variety of mechanisms such as fixing nitrogen, solubilizing phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, and producing siderophores, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and phytohormones that help plant for growth and protection against various abiotic and biotic stresses. The microbial endophytes have attained the mechanism of producing various hydrolytic enzymes such as cellulase, pectinase, xylanase, amylase, gelatinase, and bioactive compounds for plant growth promotion and protection. The efficient plant growth promoting endophytic microbes could be used as an alternative of chemical fertilizers for agro-environmental sustainability. Endophytic microbes belong to different phyla including Euryarchaeota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mucoromycota, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. The most pre-dominant group of bacteria belongs to Proteobacteria including α-, β-, γ-, and δ-Proteobacteria. The least diversity of the endophytic microbes have been revealed from Bacteroidetes, Deinococcus-Thermus, and Acidobacteria. Among reported genera, Achromobacter, Burkholderia, Bacillus, Enterobacter, Herbaspirillum, Pseudomonas, Pantoea, Rhizobium, and Streptomyces were dominant in most host plants. The present review deals with plant endophytic diversity, mechanisms of plant growth promotion, protection, and their role for agro-environmental sustainability. In the future, application of endophytic microbes have potential role in enhancement of crop productivity and maintaining the soil health in sustainable manner. © Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i. 2023.
Potential effect of novel endophytic nitrogen fixing diverse species of Rahnella on growth promotion of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
(Springer, 2024) Kusam Lata Rana; Rajeshwari Negi; Babita Sharma; Ashok Yadav; Rubee Devi; Tanvir Kaur; Sheikh Shreaz; Sarvesh Rustagi; Ashutosh Kumar Rai; Sangram Singh; Divjot Kour; Ajar Nath Yadav
The present investigation aims to isolate nitrogen fixing endophytic bacteria from cereals crops and their potential role in plant growth promotion of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) for sustainable growth. In the present investigation, endophytic bacteria were isolated from different cereal crops growing in the Divine Valley of Baru Sahib, Himachal Pradesh, India and isolates were screened for nitrogen fixation. The nitrogenase activity exhibiting bacterial isolates were further screened for other plant growth promoting traits including solubilization of phosphorus, potassium, and zinc; production of indole-3-acetic acid, siderophores, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and extracellular enzyme. The potential nitrogen fixing strains were molecularly identified and evaluated for the growth promotion of wheat. A total of 304 putative endophytic bacterial isolates were isolated from wheat, oats, barley, and maize using selective and complex growth media. Among 304 putative endophytic bacteria, 8 isolates exhibits nitrogenase activity. On the basis of nitrogenase activity and other plant promoting traits, two efficient strains i.e. EU-E1ST3.1 and EU-A2RNfb were molecularly identified using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and found that these strains belongs to genera Rahnella. The wheat inoculated with two selected nitrogen-fixing endophytic bacterial strains showed considerable enhancement in total chlorophyll, nitrogen, Fe and Zn content over the un-inoculated control. In comparison of two selected nitrogen-fixing endophytic bacterial strains, Rahnella aquatilis EU-E1ST3.1 was found to enhance better growth and physiological parameters and it might be developed as biofertilizers to establish a sustainable agriculture system. In the present investigation, the isolated potential nitrogen fixing endophytic bacteria could be used as biofertilizer or bioinoculant for growth of diverse cereal crops growing in hilly region for agricultural sustainability. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Korean Society of Crop Science (KSCS) 2024.
Rhizomicrobiome: Biodiversity and functional annotation for agricultural sustainability
(Elsevier, 2024) Sofia Sharief Khan; Babita Sharma; Rajeshwari Negi; Simranjeet Kaur; Tanvir Kaur; Damini Maithani; Imran Sheikh; Harpreet Kour; Seema Ramniwas; Ashok Yadav; Divjot Kour; Neelam Thakur; Ajar Nath Yadav; Shafaq Rasool; Amrik Singh Ahluwalia
The rhizomicrobiome, which consists of a rich and diverse assemblage of microbial organisms, functions analogously to the gut microbiome in the context of the plant genome. This resemblance can be attributed to the presence of microbial communities within the human gut. The habitat in question exhibits exceptional qualities, serving as a refuge for a remarkably diverse microbial community. Even though many studies have revealed the enormous functional versatility of rhizomicrobiome communities, our knowledge of the specific processes underlying the influence of rhizomicrobiome assemblies is still in its infancy. Furthermore, little is understood about the numerous advantageous properties of the rhizomicrobiome. An urgent need arises for a comprehensive and holistic investigation aimed at enhancing our comprehension of the dynamics of microbial communities, specifically the diversity and function of soil microbiomes. This study focuses on exploring this community's diversity and understanding the rhizomicrobiome role as biofertilizers, phytostimulators, stress alleviators, and biocontrol agents. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.