Fourteen endophytic bacterial isolates were isolated from the rhizome of Curcuma longa L. were characterized on the basis of morphology, biochemical characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The isolates were identified to six strains namely Bacillus cereus (ECL1), Bacillus thuringiensis (ECL2), Bacillus sp. (ECL3), Bacillus pumilis (ECL4), Pseudomonas putida (ECL5), and Clavibacter michiganensis (ECL6). All the strains produced IAA and solubilized phosphate and only two strains produced siderophore (ECL3 and ECL5) during plant growth promoting trait analysis. All the endophytic strains utilized glucose, sucrose and yeast extract as a carbon source where as glycine, alanine, cystine and glutamine as nitrogen source. The strains were mostly sensitive to antibiotic chloramphenicol followed by erythromycin while resistant to polymixin B. The endophytic strains effectively inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and some of the fungal strain like Fusarium solani and Alterneria alternata. The strain ECL2 and ECL4 tolerated maximum 8 % of NaCl concentration where as strains ECL5 and ECL6 6 % in salinity tolerance.

Tomato production is severely affected by abiotic stresses (drought, flood, heat, and salt) and causes approximately 70% loss in yield depending on severity and duration of the stress. Drought is the most destructive abiotic stress and tomato is very sensitive to the drought stress, as cultivated tomato lack novel gene(s) for drought stress tolerance. Only 20% of agricultural land worldwide is irrigated, and only 14.51% of that is well-irrigated, while the rest is rain fed. This scenario makes drought very frequent, which restricts the genetically predetermined yield. Primarily, drought disturbs tomato plant physiology by altering plant–water relation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Many wild tomato species have drought tolerance gene(s); however, their exploitation is very difficult because of high genetic distance and pre- and post-transcriptional barriers for embryo development. To overcome these issues, biotechnological methods, including transgenic technology and CRISPR-Cas, are used to enhance drought tolerance in tomato. Transgenic technology permitted the exploitation of non-host gene/s. On the other hand, CRISPR-Cas9 technology facilitated the editing of host tomato gene(s) for drought stress tolerance. The present review provides updated information on biotechnological intervention in tomato for drought stress management and sustainable agriculture.

We present the results of the investigations carried out on the demineralization of coal of the Rajmahal Gondwana basin of India using Pseudomonas mendocina strain B6–1. Petrographically these coals are characterized by high concentration of inertinite macerals with subordinate amount of vitrinite and liptinite macerals. The mineral matter content occurs in high concentration which gives a high ash yield. This coal contains relatively high content of major, minor and trace elements when compared with the Clarke values in coal.After the bacterial treatment a considerable reduction in the elemental content of oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur was seen. Reduction in the ash content (>5%) was achieved and variable degrees of removal of the various major, minor and trace element concentration was also noticed. Nearly 59% removal of Mn, 53% of Na, 13% of Fe was achieved among the major/minor elements while nearly 54% of As, 41% of Cd, 39% of Cu, 34% of Ni, 32% of Zn, 13% of Cr, 43% of Co and 66% of Pb could be removed. Arsenic, Fe and Ca have a strong positive correlation with the ash removal percentage indicating that the samples having increased concentration of these elements are prone to demineralization with Pseudomonas mendocina strain B6–1. Whereas the elements like Ni, Zn, Cr and Cu maintain a strong negative correlation with the ash removal percentage indicating that their enrichment could have hampered the process of demineralization.