Microbial community composition of saltern soils from Ramnagar, West Bengal, India

Microbial diversity was studied through Illumina MiSeq next generation sequencing of metagenome soil samples from Radha- Krishna saltern (sample X4) and Sreema saltern (sample X6) of Ramnagar Assembly Constituency of West Bengal, India. Remote sensing map was generated using QGIS 2.18.12, showing the sampling spots and all other area of coastal West Bengal with salterns. Physico-chemical analysis of the soil samples show slightly alkaline, less fertile, micro-nutrient enriched saline soils with presence of heavy metals i.e. cadmium, lead and copper. Alfa-diversity study shows sample X4 to be more diverse than sample X6 having a Firmicutes dominated bacterial community with Brevibacillus and Bacillus as most abundant members. Moderate to extreme halophilic genus like Halomonas is reported in both the samples. Soil community shows wide diversity of bacteria ranging from Alkaliphiles (Alkaliphilus, Geoalkalibacter), obligate anaerobes (Anaerobacillus), slightly thermophile (Geothermobacter), Psychrotolerant (Arenibacter) and some novel marine representatives such as Idiomarina in lower percentage. Metagenomic sequences are deposited in SRA database of NCBI under the accession numbers SRR6872966 (X4) and SRR6872967 (X6). The phylogenetic analysis reveals these salterns as potential hub for various microbes of biotechnological interests.