Organochlorine tolerant microbial populations profiled from rivers yamuna and godavari using next generation sequencing

Abstract

Residues of Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) such as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), Heptachlor epoxide endosulfan, Aldrin, dieldrin, etc were primarily detected in aquatic habitats mainly rivers such as Ganges, Yamuna, Godavari etc. OCPs, due to recalcitrant nature degrade slowly and pose adverse health effects to the environment and community. It is beneficial to understand the bacterial community of these ecosystems which can be targeted for bioremediation of the OCPs. The current study profiled bacterial community from rivers Yamuna (North India) and Godavari (South India) that was found to be OCP tolerant. The samples collected were enriched until a Lindane and DDT tolerant population was established and subjected to environmental metagenomic analyses using Illumina platform. The amplicon sequencing profiled around 871 species in the water samples collected from rivers Yamuna and Godavari which also established a taxonomic biodiversity with a Shannon alpha-diversity of 3.0317.