Isolation and characterization of phosphate solubilising bacteria undernath Excoecaria agallocha L. of muthupet mangrove reserve

Mangrove forests provide numerous benefits, serving as essential ecosystems for both the environment and human populations. Mangrove forests benefit from microbial development in an array of ways, including nutrient cycling, decomposition, and carbon capture. Microbes perform an important role in breaking down organic matter, releasing critical nutrients for plant growth, and boosting ecosystem productivity. They also contribute to carbon storage and can even yield useful molecules for biotechnological purposes. The current study focuses on the isolation and characterization of Phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) that has the capability to convert the inorganic form of phosphate into its bioavailable form using Pikovaskaya’s (PKA) agar medium containing insoluble tricalcium phosphate. Among the 32 isolates obtained only 8 isolates showed increased Phosphate Solubilizing Index (PSI) and further only one isolate that showed the highest value of 2.3. The obtained genomic DNA was PCR amplified and subjected to 16S rRNA sequencing and was identified as Bacillus pumilus ST3-23-10. This can further be quantitatively estimated with several other parameters and can be utilized as a bioinoculant for plant growth and development.