The World Ocean is the largest ecosystem on earth, and microorganisms constitute a wide group of life systems inhabiting ecosystems. Nonetheless, our knowledge regarding the marine microbial diversity is limited. Microorganisms make a significant contribution to ecosystem sustainability as well as the industrially important biomolecules that are obtained from them including antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, enzymes, biofuels and various other compounds. This implies that studies on their diversity, identification and taxonomy are imperative; however, a simple and effective microbial taxonomic system is still far off.
Keeping this in mind, LPU’s School of Bioengineering and Biosciences and Human Resource Development Center organized a two-day Workshop on Marine Microbiology: Diversity, Identification, and Taxonomy on 4th – 5th March 2020. The workshop invited students, faculty members, and research scholars from diverse fields including Biotechnology, Agriculture, Microbiology, and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Dr. Belle Damodar Shenoy, a Senior Research Scientist working at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography Regional Centre, Visakhapatnam, India was the Subject Matter Expert. He has pursued his Doctor of Philosophy from The University of Hong Kong and Master of Science from Mangalore University.
The workshop enabled the participants to understand the basic principles of microbial diversity and taxonomy. They gained knowledge of the DNA sequence analysis for phylogenetic reconstruction using Mega Software and applied OMICS tools for metagenomics analysis. The participants will now be able to perform the constituent tasks for identification criteria for microbial forms.
