Abstract
Dehydrogenase assays based on the reduction of 2,3,5- triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) to the creaming red-coloured formazan (TPF), have been used to determine microbial activity in soil. By spraying TTC on culturable microbial colonies, whose growth was induced by applying glucose, we observed that from 72 to 100% of the bacterial and actinomycetes colonies in different soils were capable of using TTC as an electron acceptor. This percentage decreased to only 5% in the case of fungal colonies.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dr. Pratap Narain, Director, CAZRI, Jodhpur, for his keen interest in the study, and ICAR, New Delhi, for financial support. We thank Dr. Jitendra Panwar for technical assistance.
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Praveen-Kumar, ., Tarafdar, J.C. 2,3,5-Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) as electron acceptor of culturable soil bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. Biol Fertil Soils 38, 186–189 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-003-0600-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-003-0600-y