Sediment underlying the oxygen minimum zone of the eastern Arabian Sea is rich in organic matter. Bacteria in this sediment-water interface are of great ecological importance as they are responsible for decomposing, mineralizing and subsequent recycling of organic matter. This study has for the first time addressed the phylogenetic and functional description of culturable bacteria of this region. Genotypic characterization of the isolates using amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) followed by 16SrRNA sequencing grouped them into various phylogenetic groups such as Firmicutes, Gammaproteobacteria, Low G+C Gram positive bacteria, Actinobacteria and unaffiliated bacteria. Among the enzyme activities, phosphatase was predominant (52%) and was associated with all the phylotypes followed by amylase (37%) and gelatinase (33%). These hydrolytic enzymes were expressed at a wide range of temperature and pH. Firmicutes expressed most of the hydrolytic activities, consistent with a role in degradation of organic matter. Multiple enzyme expression (>/=3) was exhibited by Actinobacteria (100%), followed by unaffiliated group (62.5%) and Firmicutes (61.5%). Besides hydrolytic enzymes, the phylotypes also elaborated functional enzymes such as nitrate reductase and catalase (58 and 81% of the isolates, respectively). In the oxygen minimum zone, the diversity was high with 28 phylotypes. Culturable bacterial assemblages encountered were Bacillus sp., Halobacillus sp., Virgibacillus sp., Paenibacillus sp., Marinilactibacillus sp., Kytococcus sp., Micrococcus sp., Halomonas sp. and Alteromonas sp. The high diversity and high percentage of extracellular hydrolytic enzyme activities of the culturable bacteria reflect their important ecological role in biogeochemical cycling of organic matter in the oxygen minimum zone.

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The eastern Arabian Sea has a unique and permanent oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) that extends along the western continental margin of India. The sediment below this region is rich in organic matter. This study describes the bacterial community structure and diversity in OMZ sediments of the eastern Arabian Sea (AS) through 16S rRNA clone library analysis. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences demonstrated that phylum Proteobacteria (52%), followed by Planctomycetes (12.7%), Chloroflexi and an unidentified bacterial group (8.8% each) were represented in the library. Deltaproteobacteria was the dominant class (62.5%) in phylum Proteobacteria with clones falling in orders Syntrophobacterales and Desulfovibrionales. Few minor phylogenetic groups, corresponding to Spirochetes, Firmicutes, Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia were found. Unidentified candidate groups falling in OP11, OP8 and OP3 were represented by 0.9, 2.9 and 3.9%, respectively and two clusters of the cloned sequences in this study showed very low identity to known sequences. This is the first report that discusses the phylogenetic groups in the OMZ sediments of eastern Arabian Sea individually and compares it with available data from marine hypoxic locales and water mass. LIBSHUFF statistics revealed high richness of the bacterial community of the Arabian Sea OMZ (AS-OMZ) compared to the other regions.

The eastern Arabian Sea has a unique and permanent oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) that extends along the western continental margin of India. In order to understand the bacterial community structure and diversity of OMZ sediment of the Arabian Sea (AS), PCR-DGGE analysis were carried out for samples collected off Ratnagiri, Goa and Karwar at 50m, 200m, 500m and 1000m depths. PCR-DGGE analysis showed that Proteobacteria dominated all the sites ie 50m (non-OMZ) and 200m, 500m and 1000m (OMZ) along the depth gradient. Majority of the bands were attributed to the Proteobacteria. The other groups obtained belonged to Nitrospira, Bacteriodetes, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Acidobacteria. The species diversity index was higher in the OMZ sites compared to the non-OMZ sites.

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