Heterotrophic Profile of Bacteria Isolated from prawn pond sediments

Monica Aiza M. Orquieza and Buenaflor D. Jimenez

Heterotrophic profile of bacteria from prawn pond sediments was conducted.Thirty eight bacterial isolates from 83 isolates were successfully purified in nutrient agar These isolates were subjected to a series of biochemical tests: presence of catalase, acetyl methyl carbinol production, 2,3 butanediol production, hydrogen sulfide production, sulfur reduction, citrate utilization,indole production, motility, nitrate and nitrite reduction, glucose fermentation, sucrose fermentation, oxidative, fermentation. The most common functional groups were nitrate reducers and sucrose fermenters comprising 79% of the total population. The remaining 21% were composed of other functional groups with some isolates belonging also to nitrate reducers and sucrose fermenters group.
Cluster analyses showed overlapping of functional groups resulting only to four major functional groups: sucrose fermenters, nitrate reducers, citrate utilizers and nitrate/sucrose fermenters.
The probability of two of these isolates from other functional group to belong to the same functional group is high (D=0.1131) but diversity of the different functional groups in pond sediment is low (D=0.8869).