Introduction

The Department of Ocean Development is now merged with the Ministry of Earth Sciences and continues to support basic and applied research in Ocean and Atmospheric Science and Technology in Universities through the Ocean & Atmospheric Science and Technology Cells (OASTCs).

The nine locale (region) OASTCs set up in different institutions of the country take up projects submitted by universities, national laboratories and Indian Institutes of Technology, etc. R&D projects submitted to OASTC are scrutinized by the experts and their recommendations are submitted to Ministry for release of financial support.

Management Board

The cell functions under the guidance of the Management Board with the Vice Chancellor, Goa University as the Chairperson.

Management Board - 1998-May 2007

Management Board Since June 2007

Events

• Colloquium (February 19 and 20, 1998): About 20 invited members attended the colloquium to discuss and highlight various areas in Marine Microbiology in relation to Indian Coastline.
• Training course at Goa University (June 20-27, 1998) and Mangalore (June 28-30, 1998): Training, comprising the lectures and practicals, giving hands on experience, was conducted by the OSTC (Marine Microbiology).
• Meetings: Management Board of the OSTC (Marine Microbiology) meets frequently to plan various activities, to determine the thrust areas in research, invite and recommend the research project proposals, monitor the ongoing projects and conduct of training course, workshops etc. So far eighteen meetings have been organized with the last one being held on October 5 2007
• Workshops: In order to assess the suitability of new project proposals for consideration and for examining the status of ongoing projects, the P.I.s are invited to make a presentation at the Workshops held at Goa University.
• Review Committee meeting: DOD had constituted a two member Review Committee for reviewing the functioning of OSTC in Marine Microbiology who visited on July 1-2, 2002 and recommended that it can be upgraded to level of center of excellence.
• Field trips and cruises: The MDP research fellows are participated in the scientific cruise to "Equatorial Indian Ocean" on board ORV Sagar Kanya organized by NCAOR, Goa.
• Steering Committee meeting: Held on November 26-27, 2004 at Goa University under the chairmanship of Dr. Harsh Gupta, Secretary, DOD. Members: DOD Officials, Vice Chairman's and Research Coordinators of nine OSTCs and Vice Chancellor, Goa University.

• Seminar: organized in collaboration with National Centre For Antarctic And Ocean Research, Vasco on "Recent Trends in Marine Microbiology (February 15- 16, 2005).
• The Department of Microbiology has received a sanction from MoES and the seminar was organized on 'Marine Microbial Interactions' in March 1-2, 2007.
• UGC approved course: Advanced Post Graduate Diploma in Marine Microbiology and Technology supported by UGC under the scheme of Innovative programme-Teaching and Research in Interdisciplinary and Emerging Areas for 5 years.

Projects

1. Title of the project: Role of marine microaerophilic and anaerobic bacteria on DMS flux in estuarine ecosystem.
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. Shanta Achutankutty, N.I.O., Goa.
3. Name & address of Co-P.I.:
   (i) Dr. D. Chandramohan, NIO, Goa
   (ii) Dr. Dileep Kumar, NIO, Goa.
   (iii) Dr. P. A. Loka Bharathi, NIO, Goa.
4. Period: 1999-2004
5. Number of publications: NIL

1. Title of the project: Marine bacteria as potential sources for Linoleic and Linolenic acid in farmed animals
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. R. Roy, Department of Zoology, Goa University
3. Name & address of co-PI.: Dr. S. Bhosle, Department of Microbiology, GU
4. Period: 1999-2004
5. Number of publications: 2

1. Title of the project: Studies on marine bacteria transforming organotins and development of microbial sensors for monitoring organotins in marine environment
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. S. K. Dubey, Department of Microbiology, GU
3. Name & address of co-P.I.: Dr. S. Bhosle, Department of Microbiology, GU
4. Period: 1999-2004
5. Number of publications: 4

1. Title of the project: Agricultural fungicide from Marine Actinomycetes.
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. K. Kathiresan, Annamalai University.
3. Name & address of co-P.I.:
   (i) Dr. A. Purushothaman
   (ii) Dr. A. R. Balagurunathan
4. Period: 2000-2004
5. Number of publications: 4

1. Title of the project: Viruses of marine shrimp along south coast west coast of India
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. Indrani Karunasagar, Mangalore
3. Name & address of co-P.I.: Dr. I. Karunasagar, Mangalore
4. Period: 2000-2004
5. Number of publications: 3

1. Title of the project: Crustacean chitin waste management for the production of chitin, chitosan and biocontrol agents for plant pathogens.
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. H. S. Chhatpar, Vadodara
3. Name & address of co-P.I.: Dr. P. R. Vyas
4. Period: 2002-2005
5. Number of publications: 6

1. Title of the project: Rapid survey of prevalence and geographic distribution of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) of shrimp long the coast of India by the use of molecular probes
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. Sait Sahul Hammed, Tamil Nadu
3. Name & address of co-P.I.: Dr. R. B. Narayanan
4. Period: 2002-2005
5. Number of publications: 2

1. Title of the project: Anoxygenic phototrophic bacterial diversity of marine ecosystems and their capability to degrade aromatic compounds
2. Name & address of P.I: Name & address of P.I Dr. Ch. Venkat Ramana, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad
3. Name & address of co-P.I.: Dr. (Mrs.) Ch. Sasikala
4. Number of publications: 15

1. Title of the project: Collection, documentation and evaluation of Streptomyces belonging to Bhitarkanika mangrove ecosystems of Orissa
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. Nibha Gupta, Regional Plant Resource Centre,
   Bhubaneswar (Orissa)
3. Name & address of co-P.I.L: Dr. U. C. Basak
4. Number of publications: 7 (communicated)

1. Title of the project: Molecular Biology of marine cyanobacteria with reference to biodiversity taxonomy and establishment of molecular data ban
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. N. Thajuddin, National Facility for Marine
   Cyanobacteria, Tiruchirapalli
3. Name & address of co-P.I.: Dr. D. Prabaharan
4. Number of publications: 1 & 1 (communicated)

1. Title of the project: Ecology of marine microbes and their interaction with heavy metal pollution in the innershelf of Bay of Bengal off Chennai Metropolitan City, Tamil Nadu
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. V. Kannan, Madras University, Chennai
3. Name & address of co-P.I.:
   (i) Dr. S. Srinivasalu
   (ii) Dr. V. Ram Mohan
4. Number of publications: NIL

Marine Manpower Development Projects (MMDP)

1. Title of the project: Microbiological studies on Mangrove/ marine bacterial flora
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. S. Mavinkurve/Dr. S. Bhosle, Department of
   Microbiology, Goa University
3. Number of publications : NIL

1. Title of the project: Studies on marine-organisms producing lipases and polyhydroxy alkanoates
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. Sandeep Garg, Department of Microbiology, GU
3. Number of publications: NIL

1. Title of the project: Biodiversity and bioprospecting of bacteria associated with sand dune a unique marine ecosystem
2. Name & address of P.I: Dr. Saroj Bhosle, Department of Microbiology, GU
3. Number of publications: NIL

Publications

Roy, U., Dubey, S.K. and Bhosle, S.2000. Tributyltin resistant bacteria from marine environment. In: Proceedings of Microbiotech -2000 & 41st Annual meeting of AMI organized by Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Anirban Chakraborty, S.K.Otta, B.Joseph, Sanath Kumar, Md. Shahadat Hossain, Indrani Karunasagar, M.N. Venugopal and Iddya Karunasagar.2002. Prevalence of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in wild crustaceans along the coast of India. Current Science. 82: 1392-1397

Roy, U., Dubey, S.K. and Bhosle, S. (2001). Characterization of exopolymer produced by Sphingomonas sp. utilizing TBTC. ln: Proceedings of international conference on "Industrial pollution and control technologies" Organized by Center of Environment, Institute of Post graduate Studies and Research, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad., A.P.pp. 639-642.

M. Masilamani Selvam, K. Kathiresan, R. Balagurunathan and A. Purushothaman (2001). Antibacterial activity of Marine Actinomycetes Isolated from Mangrove Sediments”-paper presented at Sri Sankara Arts & Science College, Kancheepuram and published in Proceedings of the Seminar on “Recent Trends in Microbial Biotechnology” 30-41, Jan 2001.

Manivannan, S., Otta, S.K., Karunasagar, I and Karunasagar, I. (2002). Multiple viral infection in Penaeus monodon shrimp postlarvae in an Indian hatchery . Dis. Aquat. Org., 48: 233-236.

S. Sahul Hammed, G. Balasubramanian, S. Syed Musthaq, K. Yoganandhan (2003). Experimental infection of twenty species of Indian marine crabs with white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). Diseases of aquatic organisms. 57: 157-161.

K. Yoganandhan, S. Sathish, R B Narayanan & A S Sahul Hameed (2003). A rapid
non-enzymatic method of DNA extraction for PCR detection of white spot syndrome virus in shrimp. Aquaculture Research. 34, 1093-1097.

Screening of bacteria from coastal ecosystems as potential sources of alpha linolenic acid by Pujari S., Roy R. and Bhosle S. (2004). J. Mar. Sci. 33:24-25.

Marine bacteria can be used as a source of alpha linolenic acid for the poultry birds. Pujari S., Singh S., Bhosle S. and Roy R. Poultry Sci. (communicated).

Dubey, S.K and Roy, U. (2003). Biodegradation of Tributyltins (organotins) by marine bacteria. Applied Organometallic Chemistry . V 01. 17: 1-6.

Roy,U., Dubey, S.K. and Bhosle, S. (2004). Tributyltin chloride degrading bacteria from marine environment of west coast of India. Current Science. Vol. 86(5): 702- 705.

K. Kathiresan, R. Balagurunathan and M. Masilamani Selvam (2005). Fungicidal activity of marine actinomycetes against phytopathogenic fungi. Indian Journal of Biotechnology 4: 271-276.

Antibacterial activity of marine actinomycetes isolated from Pichavaram Mangrove sediments (Indian Journal of Marine Sciences-communicated)

Viability and their antimicrobial activity of marine actinomycetes isolated from marine sediments (Indian journal of Experimental Biology-communicated).

Manivannan, S., B.Kennedy M Dass, Indrani Karunasagar and Iddya Karunasagar. 2004. Prevalence of monodon baculovirus in wild Metapenaeus species along the south west coast of India. Aquaculture, 232: 63-67.
Vipul Gohel, Derick Jiwan, Pranav Vyas, H. S. Chhatpar (2005). Statistical optimization of chitinase production by Pantoea dispersa to enhance degradation of crustacean chitin waste. Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 15: 197-201.

Vipul Gohel, Pranav Vyas, H. S. Chhatpar (2005). Activity staining method of chitinase on chitin agar plate through polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. African Journal of Biotechnology. 4 (1): 87-90.

Vipul Gohel, Derick Jiwan, Smita Tandel, Pranav Vyas, Chhatpar H. S. (2005). Management of the chitinous wastes by production of chitosan and its application.
Environmental Degradation and Management vol. I 35-42, [ISBN-81-85543-05-4

Vipul Gohel, Smita Trivedi, Pranav Vyas, H. S. Chhatpar (2004). Formulation of media constituents by multiresponse analysis of central composite design to enhance chitinase production in Pantoea dispera. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology. 42: 1123-1131.

Vipul Gohel, Megha, C., Pranav Vyas, H. S. Chhatpar (2004). Strain improvement of chitinase producing isolate Pantoea dispersa for enhancing its biocontrol potential against fungal plant pathogens. Annals of Microbiology 54: 503-515.

Vipul Gohel, Tejas Chaudhary, Pranav Vyas, H. S. Chhatpar (2004). Isolation and
identification of marine chitinolytic bacteria and their potential in antifungal biocontrol. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 42: 715-720.

V. Gohel, V. Maisuria, H. S. Chhatpar (2006). Utilization of various chitinous sources for production of mycolytic enzymes by Pantoea dispersa in bench-top fermenter. Enzyme and Microbial Technology

Vipul Gohel, Anil Singh, Maisuria Vimal, Phadnis Ashwini and Chhatpar H. S. (2006). Review-Bioprospecting and antifungal potential of chitinolytic microorganisms. Journal of Biotechnology. 5: 54-72.

Vipul Gohel, Tejas Chaudhary, Pranav Vyas, H. S. Chhatpar (2006). Statistical screenings of medium components for the production of chitinase by the marine isolate Pantoea dispera. Biochemical Engineering Journal. 28(50-56).

K. Yoganandhan, S. Syed Musthaq, R. B. Narayanan and A S Sahul Hameed (2004). Production of polyclonal antiserum against recombinant VP28 protein and its application for the detection of white spot syndrome virus in crustaceans. Journal of fish diseases. 27: 517-522.6

S. Syed Mushtaq, R. Sudhakaran, G. Balasubramanian, A. S. Sahul Hameed. (2006). Experimental transmission and tissue tropism of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in two species of lobsters, Panulirus homarus and Panulirus ornatus. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 193: 75-80.

A. S. Sahul Hameed, V. Parameswaran, S. Syed Mushtaq, R. Sudhakaran, G. Balasubramanian and K. Yoganandhan (2005). A simple PCR procedure to detect white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) of shrimp, Penaeus monodon (Fabricious) Acquaculture International 13:441-450.

K. Yoganandhan, S. Syed Mushtaq, R. Sudhakaran, G. Balasubramanian. A. S. Sahul Hameed (2006). Temporal analysis of VP28 gene of Indian white spot syndrome virus isolate (WSSV) in different crustacean hosts. Aquaculture 253: 71-81.

S. Syed Mushtaq, K. Yoganandhan, R. Sudhakaran, S. Rajesh Kumar, A. S. Sahul Hameed (2006). Neutralization of white spot syndrome virus of shrimp by antiserum raised against recombinant VP28. Aquaculture 253: 98-104.

S. Syed Mushtaq, R. Sudhakaran, V. P. Ishaq Ahmed, G. Balasubramanian, A. S. Sahyl Hameed (2006). Variability in the tandem repetitive DNA sequences of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) genome and suitability of VP28 gene to detect different isolates of WSSV from India. Aquaculture 256: 34-41.

A. S. Sahul Hameed, M. Sarathi, R. Sudhakaran, G. Balasubramanian, S. Syed Mushtaq (2006). Quantitative assessment of apoptotic hemocytes in white spot syndrome virus (WSSV)-infected penaeid shrimp. Penaeus monodon and by flow cytometric analysis. Aquaculture 256: 111-120.

Diazotrophic bacteria associated with coastal sand dune vegetation, national conference on “Coastal Agricultural Research” held at ICAR Research complex Goa from 6-7 April 2002.

Studies on free living and adhered bacteria from Coastal sand dune ecosystem”.
International conference on “Microbiology of the tropical seas” held at
National Institute of Oceanography, Goa from December 13-15, 2004.

Screening of coastal and marine environments for polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulating microorganisms”. International conference on “Microbial diversity: Current Perspectives and potential applications” held at Department of Microbiology, University of Delhi South campus, New Delhi on April 16-18, 2005.

Diversity of PHA accumulating bacterial isolates belonging to Bacillus species obtained from marine and coastal environments”. International conference on “Microbial diversity: Current Perspectives and potential applications” held at Department of Microbiology, University of Delhi South campus, New Delhi on April 16-18, 2005

Exopolysaccharide producing bacteria from coastal sand dunes” presented at
the National conference on Frontiers in Environmental sciences and Engineering
in India (FESEI, 2005) held at Bharathiar University, Coimbatore from
September 15-17, 2005. (fellow awarded Eureka Forbes – Young Scientist Award)

Screening of bacteria from coastal ecosystems as potential sources of alpha
linolenic acid by Pujari S., Roy R. and Bhosle S. (2004). J. Mar. Sci. 33:24-25.

Marine bacteria can be used as a source of alpha linolenic acid for the poultry
birds. Pujari S., Singh S., Bhosle S. and Roy R. Poultry Sci. (communicated).

Proformas

• Proforma for submission of project proposal
• Proforma for the assets acquired from the project by the Institution
• Proforma for request for extension of grant
• Proforma for the submission of final report
• Proforma for submission of UC

Centre Of Excellence In Marine Microbiology

Goa University has established a Centre of Excellence (COE) in Marine Microbiology supported by the Ministry of Earth Sciences with the Thrust Areas:

• Microbial products of agrochemical and environmental significance
• Detection and biosorption of metals (Fe, Mn) in water samples
• Bioremediation of waters contaminated with hydrocarbons, persistent organic pollutants and metals

The objective of the Centre is to strengthen academic and scientific work in the area of Marine Microbiology and support projects in this area through funding from the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The Centre has an internal Advisory Committee with members from Goa University and functions under the guidance of the Management Board constituted by Ministry of Earth Sciences. The Vice Chancellor, Goa University is the Chairperson for both the committees.

• The equipments to be set up in CIF include
• Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer
• High performance liquid chromatography
• Fermentor (Pilot scale)
• Milli Q synthesis water purification system