Isolation and Characterisation of Sulphur Oxidising Bacteria from Mangrove Soil of Mahanadi River Delta and Their Sulphur Oxidising Ability

This study was conducted to isolate sulphur oxidising bacteria from mangrove soil of Mahanadi river delta, Odisha, India and evaluate their sulphur oxidation ability. Results showed that in total thirty sulphur oxidising bacteria were isolated from six different location of mangrove soil. From the qualitative screening it was found that out of the thirty bacterial isolates, twelve isolates could efficiently reduce the pH of the medium upto 4.2 from the initial pH 8.0. Their sulphate ion production abilities were in the range of 125 mg/ml- 245 mg/ml. Their sulphur oxidase activities were in the range of 11.6 to 126.83 U/ ml/ min. From morphological and biochemical characterisation, most of the isolates were identified as Micrococcus spp., Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Klebsiella spp.