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Microbial diversity analysis of Chumathang geothermal spring, Ladakh, India

  • Environmental Microbiology - Research Paper
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Abstract

In light of their unique and challenging environment, the high-altitude Chumathang geothermal springs in Ladakh, India, are undeniably intriguing for microbiological study. The purpose of this study was to employ a culture-independent sequencing approach to give a comprehensive characterization of the unknown bacterial and archaeal community structure, composition and networks in water and soil from the Chumathang geothermal spring. A total of 50%, and 42.86% bacterial phyla were found in the water, and soil samples respectively and this analysis also showed a total of 9.62% and 7.94% of archaeal phyla in both the samples, respectively. Further, the presence of unclassified (derived from other sequences, water: 17.31%, and soil: 19.05%) and unclassified (derived from bacteria, water: 13.46%, and soil: 12.70%) were also observed in the current metagenomics investigation. Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were the most abundant bacterial phyla in water, whereas Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the most abundant bacterial phyla in geothermal soil. Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota dominated archeal communities in soil and water, respectively. This metagenomic study gave a detailed insight into the microbial diversity found in Chumathang geothermal spring and surrounding area, located in Ladakh, India. Surprisingly, this finding indicated the existence of geographically distinct microbial communities that were suited to various geothermal water habitats along the Himalayan Geothermal Belt. Future studies must take into account the metabolic pathways of these microbial communities that exist in these extreme environments. This will allow us to obtain a better knowledge of the microbial metabolisms that are common at these geothermal locations, which have a lot of potential for biotechnological applications. They will also enable us to establish links between the microbial community composition and the physicochemical environment of geothermal water and area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express gratitude to the Director, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), for providing the required facilities to carry out the work. SD acknowledges the Council of Scientifc and Industrial Research (CSIR), Govt. of India for funds under Project number MLP0201. The authors duly acknowledge the Neuberg Center for Genomic Medicine, Neuberg Supratech Research Laboratories (NSRL), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, for providing the facility for Illumina sequencing. Further, the author SK acknowledges the CSIR-JRF fellowship received from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, and the author GC acknowledges the PA fellowship (under Project Code: GAP0310) received from DBT, New Delhi. This manuscript represents CSIR-IHBT Communication No. 5395.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, 176061, India

    Kumari Anu, Shalini Kumari, Geetanjli Choudhary & Sarita Devi

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Kumari Anu, Shalini Kumari & Sarita Devi

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  1. Kumari Anu
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  2. Shalini Kumari
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SD provided significant contributions to the manuscript's conceptualization and drafting. SD and KA collected the samples and data to write the manuscript. SD and KA wrote the manuscript, with support from SK and GC. The submitted manuscript was read and approved by all of the authors.

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Correspondence to Sarita Devi.

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Anu, K., Kumari, S., Choudhary, G. et al. Microbial diversity analysis of Chumathang geothermal spring, Ladakh, India. Braz J Microbiol 55, 1545–1555 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-024-01284-3

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