Unraveling the bacterial community composition across aquatic sediments in the Southwestern coast of India by employing high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing

Abstract

In this study, the basic bacterial community composition associated with aquatic sediments of the freshwater, mangrove and marine ecosystems of a coastal region in the Southwest coast of India (Mangalore, Karnataka) was explored using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The V3–V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA gene analysis revealed that freshwater and marine ecosystems had a higher abundance of phyla Planctomyces and Proteobacteria which are known to play a major role in the nitrogen cycle, improving the global nitrogen bioavailability in aquatic ecosystems. Functional prediction of xenobiotic degradation pathways using KEGG database from all three samples suggest the resident microbial tolerance to organic contaminants, xenobiotics and pesticides that play a major role in balancing ecological systems by metabolizing the xenobiotics or contaminants to maintain the resilience of the ecosystem. The study highlights the importance of investigating the bacterial community composition across the aquatic ecosystems as it can serve as an indicator of environmental health as well as provide a valuable gene pool for biotechnological applications.