The present study was undertaken to assess the genetic diversity in microbial populations of pesticidecontaminated arid agricultural soil vis-a-vis uncontaminated or pristine soil of Jodhpur district of western Rajasthan. In a parallel study, we also analyzed the presence of naphthalene degraders by amplification of nahA component of naphthalene dioxygenase gene coding for Naphthalene 1, 2- dioxygenase reductase (Ferrero et al., 2002) in the contaminated soil sample. |