USA, Mar 27: Space is a very challenging and stressfull place to grow plants and we know that our astronauts are trying their best practices known in space farming in the International Space Station (ISS). Eight locations were constantly surveyed and four strains of rod shaped bacteria belonging to family Methylobacteriaceae have been discovered. In that the first one was identified as Methylorubrum rhodesianum and the rest were closely related to Methylobacterium indicum. But one was a new strain, so the researchers from the University of Hyderabad, who are working in association with NASA’s reseaerchers have named this Methylobacterium ajmalii, one after an Indian biodiversity scientist Seyed Ajmal Khan, who is a professor at Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu. The genes present in this rod shaped bacteria are helpful in growth promotion, nitrogen fixation and pigment metabolism and helps in fighting plant diseases as well. This is surely a potential game- changer for space farming.
