A novel psychrophilic Janthinobacterium lividum MMPP4 isolated from Manimahesh Lake of Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh, India

We isolated psychrophilic bacterial strains from high altitude (elevation 13,390 ft) Manimahesh Lake of Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh. Based on phenotypic characteristics and growth appearance at 4ºC, four bacterial isolates (MMPP2, MMPP4, MMPP5, and MMPP7) were selected and showed optimum growth at 20ºC and no growth was detected at 25ºC.  Qualitative assay showed that cell free medium of MMPP4 prevent inhibition of freezing (antifreeze activity) as determined by freezing of cell free medium at -20ºC for seven days. Proteinase K treatment and heat inactivation at 80ºC for 6 h resulted in the loss of antifreeze activity, suggesting a proteinaceous nature of antifreeze activity. MMPP4 produces protease, phytase and lipase enzymes, but did not produce amylase. Moreover, cell free supernatant of MMPP4 showed proteinaceous type of antimicrobial activity against S. aureus as measured by agar well diffusion assay.  To identify the MMPP4 strain, 16s rDNA was amplified using 27F and 1492R standard primers and sequenced on both the strands. Nucleotide BLAST and phylogenetic analysis showed 99% identity to Janthinobacterium lividum strain and deposited in GenBank accession no. as KJ509870. The finding revealed a great potential of the Janthinobacterium lividum strain MMPP4 for biotechnological applications as a source of industrially important enzymes and antimicrobial compound.