Indigenous actinomycetes of the Himalaya: current knowledge and a bioinformatics perspective on plant growth-promoting and cold-tolerance traits

Biofertilizers used in saleable formulations perform poorly in cold Himalayan regions owing to the suppressed metabolic activity of bioinoculants under low temperatures. Cold-adapted Actinobacteria, as potent plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), emerge as viable cold-active bioinoculants for sustainable nutrient management in high-altitude crop cultivation. This perspective aims to document the Actinobacterial metabolic diversity in the glacier bionetwork lying in the North-Eastern and North-Western Himalayan region. A comparative functional bioinformatics study of plant growth-promoting genes demonstrated distinct clustering of Himalayan versus non-Himalayan strains, driven by alanine/aspartate/glutamate metabolism, geraniol degradation, and pyruvate metabolism. This pioneering genomic differentiation of Himalayan actinomycetes from other cold habitats highlights unique cold-tolerance and plant growth-promoting factors that may target particular functionality for crop cultivation in the extreme glacier environment.