Identification of Novel Methanotrophic Bacterial Isolates from Indian North-East Oil Natural Gas Field & Paddy Field Regions

Novel methanotrophic bacterial species were identified in this study using the molecular detection method, isolated using microbiological techniques, and studied their cellular shape using atomic force microscopy. Two methanotrophic bacterial species belonging to Methylocaldum and Methylomonas genera were provisionally designated as Isolate 1 and Isolate 5, thus isolated from the Oil-Natural Gas Field and Paddy Field, respectively. The Oil-Natural Gas Field Isolate 1 showed 91.82-97.25% sequence homology to the reference Methanotrophic species, whereas Paddy Field Isolate 5 showed 79.72-84.99% sequence homology to the reference Methylomonas species in the NCBI database. As per the phylogenetic analysis, Oil-Natural Gas Field Isolate 1 and Paddy Field Isolate 5 are possibly new species of Methylocaldum and Methylomonas genus, respectively. In addition, the microscopic study also supported the molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of isolated species by showing the cocci and rod shapes for the Oil-Natural Gas Field Isolate 1 and Paddy Field Isolate 5, respectively.