Patents

The invention relates to a solid nutrient media composition having alkaline pH, useful for isolating and identifying alkaliphilic microorganisms in pure form, wherein the media composition consisting of 5-15g of carbon source, 2.5-10g of peptone, 2.5-10g of yeast extract, 0.5-1.5g of dipotassium hydrogen phosphate; 0.1-0.5g of magnesium sulphate heptahydrate, 30µl-4ml of super saturated solution of sodium hydroxide, 5-20g of potassium chloride and 10-30g of K-carrageenan in one litre of distilled water. The invention further provides a process for the preparation of a solid nutrient media composition having alkaline pH, useful for isolating and identifying alkaliphilic microorganisms in pure form. The invention also provides a method of using the solid nutrient media composition having alkaline pH to study biodiversity of cultivable alkaliphilic bacteria. The potassium salt in combination with K-carrageenan in specific proportion has been found to be a suitable replacement of agar in solidifying bacteriological media especially, for isolation of extreme alkaliphiles. The microbial techniques for purifying colonies by streaking can be carried out successfully using K-carrageenan as a gelling agent.