Recent Trends in Microbial Diversity and Bio-prospecting

Microbial diversity is the key to human survival and economic well being and provides a huge reservoir of resources which we can utilize for our benefit. Focus on microbial diversity is very important in the present day scenario to combat new and emerging disease problems and to advance biotechnology. New technologies, particularly in nucleic acid analysis, computer science, analytical chemistry, habitat sampling and characterizations place the study of microbial diversity on the cutting edge of science. Despite the acknowledged value of microorganisms, our knowledge of their diversity and many of their key roles in sustaining of global life supporting systems is still very scarce. Exploration, evaluation and exploitation of microbial diversity are essential for scientific, industrial and social development. It is even more relevant in India due to its enormous wealth of diverse bio-diversity. This vast microbial diversity of the natural world combined with indigenous methods to access the diversity can provide us with a bountiful source of new and valuable products. This book is an attempt to arrange diverse microorganisms and their potential use in different fields in a coherent manner and lays focus on the aspects of diversity of microbes and their biotechnological, medical and environmental explorations. This book would be very useful to researchers, R&D labs, upcoming students and scientists of microbial diversity and bio-prospection.