The present study investigated the diversity of cyanobacteria population existent in the rice fields of National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India. Rice is being continuously grown in two seasons annually for last 75 years with different crop management practices. A total of 20 different isolates of cyanobacteria were collected based on morphological and molecular markers and were characterised for growth pattern, primary metabolites, different pigments and nitrogen fixing enzymes. Anabaena variabilis, Nostoc sp. (1) and Scytonema sp. (2) had significantly higher content of cell dry weight, protein and carbohydrate as compared to others. Similarly, different pigments such as chlorophyll a, carotenoids and phycobiliproteins were maximum in Nostoc sp. (1), Westiellopsis sp. (2) and Niveispirillum cyanobacteriorum, respectively. The nitrogen fixing ability was checked by studying nitrate reductase and glutamine synthatase and they were significantly higher in Nostoc sp. (1) and Anabaena variabilis, respectively. Based on principal component analysis and heat map study, Anabaena variabilis and Nostoc sp. (1) could be used as biofuel producer and biofertilizer; Westiellopsis sp. (2), Fischerella sp., Synechocystis sp. and Anabaena variabilis could be promoted in cosmetic/commercial industries. There is a great scope for further utilisation of these characterised isolates of cyanobacteria in different industries.
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