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Halophytes are the plants that thrive in hypersaline environments such as solar salterns. Their rhizosphere may have beneficial microorganisms which are not studied adequately. A total number of 8 rhizosphere soil samples were collected during a monsoon season from Suaeda maritima from the solar salterns along Kelambakkam and Thaiyur, Tamil Nadu, India from which 73 rhizobacteria were isolated in pure culture. When they were grown on different salt concentrations, it has been found that they grow well in nutrient media having salt concentrations ranging from 0-20% of NaCl. They were further characterized for their alkaline tolerance also. In an attempt to study the bioprospecting of these HTRB, they were subjected to qualitative screening for various environmental, agricultural, medical and industrial beneficial bioactivities. They were not able to decolorize the five dyes tested. All of them were also not able to produce plant growth promotion activities such as production of IAA and solubilization of tri-calcium phosphate. Surprisingly none of the strains could exhibit any antibacterial and antifungal activity. However, they were found to produce some economically important industrial enzymes such as amylase, lipase and protease extracellularly. Few strains alone could to produce proteolytic activity event at 10% of slat concentrates. While our previous studies in which we collected samples from the similar locations during summer has yielded many beneficial organisms, the present study concludes that though the HTRB from the halophytes of Kelambakkam salterns collected during monsoon season were not showing any plant growth promoting or environmental beneficial applications. However, they were efficient in producing salt active hydrolytic enzymes. So, these HTRB can further be characterized for their extracellular enzymes which may be exploited commercially also.
Key words: Halophytes, rhizosphere, solar salterns, rhizobacteria, industrial enzymes, salinity