India's first deep sea marine microbial research facility coming up in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore

The repository at Nellore will have all the cutting-edge equipment and cryo-freezers to study and store microbes isolated from different deep-sea environments (AI Generated Image)

India’s first Deep Sea Marine Microbial Repository to study micro-organisms found in extreme marine environments is taking shape at a sea-front campus of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.

The state-of-the-art facility will allow scientists to study, isolate and culture microbes for industrial, biomedical, and environmental applications. Deep sea microbes are primitive forms of life which live under high hydrostatic pressure, low temperature, and sustain life without sunlight. ”Due to their unique adaptation, they are capable of producing a wide range of novel molecules which will be of medical, industrial and environmental importance,” NIOT Director Balaji Ramakrishnan told PTI during a recent visit to Chennai.

The repository at Nellore will have all the cutting-edge equipment and cryo-freezers to study and store microbes isolated from different deep-sea environments. ”We will study and document the microbes and offer it to researchers and start-ups to develop commercial products,” Ramakrishnan said. The deep sea bacteria thrive in high-pressure deep sea environments and cannot tolerate a drastic change in pressure.

The facility at Nellore will have a Deep-sea Microbial Culture Facility that would allow scientists to mimic deep-sea environments in laboratories to study microorganisms in their living conditions. NIOT researchers have so far catalogued more than 1,000 promising strains through expeditions in the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean. Some documented strains have already found commercial and scientific applications.