A Combinational Analysis of Acidophilic Bacterial Diversity of an Iron-Rich Environment

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Microbial diversity, same as mineral deposits has been evaluated to be among the underground riches of a country. New data on microbial diversity are thought to be of potential economic value. Acid drainage waters are characterized by low pH and high concentrations of metals. Therefore, these acidic habitats are perfect places for quantitative and genomic-based analyses related to microbial ecology and community functions. The samplings were collected from the Kahramanmaras. The microbiological and molecular techniques were applied to determine the acidophilic community of these regions. Water samples were rich in iron (808.2 ppm, 1086.6 ppm, 2264.7 ppm), gold (1.4 ppm, 1.6 ppm, 2.5 ppm), aluminum (218.5 ppm, 265.5 ppm, 464.3 ppm), manganese (994.1 ppm, 945.6 ppm, 1643.4 ppm), sulfur (3432 ppm, 3971 ppm, 6399 ppm) and zinc (93.9 ppm, 10.8 ppm, 169.5 ppm), respectively for three seasons. The isolates were obtained as Acidiphilium sp., Acidithiobacillus sp., and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans. The predominant bacteria were found to be the members of Acidiphilium, Metallibacterium, Acidithiobacillus, Leptospirillum genera according to the results of the community fingerprint and clone library. 16S amplicon sequencing was analyzed and the diversity results were given at the genus level. Combined culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques were used to identify indigenous bacteria in the iron-rich acid mine ponds. The chemolithotrophic and heterotrophic acidophiles were isolated.