Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria from Hyper Velocity Meteorite Impact Lonar Crater

Nitrogen is required in large amounts by biological entities as all essential component of proteins, nucleic acids and other cellular constituents. Biological nitrogen fixation is a significant process of entry of nitrogen into an ecosystem and many nonsymbiotic microbial species play a major role in this. In an aquatic ecosystem the major regions where this activity occurs is in the benthic and the littoral zones. Lonar Lake is a closed. basin lake formed in a meteorite impact crater formed some 50,000 years ago. Situated near Lonar village in Buldhana district of Maharashtra (Lat. 19 degrees 58', long. 76 degrees 34'), it is the only such lake formed in basaltic rock. Littoral soil samples of Lonar Like were subjected to isolation of aerobic, nonsymbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria. General characters and nitrogen fixing potential of some isolates are described in this paper.