Metagenomics as a tool for river health monitoring

Abstract

India has vast riverine resources that provide ample goods and services to millions of people in the country. However, these rivers’ healths are under continuous threats due to pollution and other anthropogenic activities. The emergence of metagenomics-based approaches in ecological niches have emerged as powerful tools for river health monitoring. The metagenomic studies have an advantage in overcoming the culturebased biases in microbiological studies. High-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods and advanced computational software/tools for data analysis have the potential to revolutionize the metagenomics studies. Sediment samples from a few river basins across the world as well as from India have been examined for microbial diversity and functioning using high-throughput NGS platforms. Availability of advance computing facilities have increased the scope of microbial biogeographic studies; the impact of environmental changes and anthropogenic activity to the bacterial community. These fascinating and state-of-the-art tools have increased the opportunity and scientific understanding of the interactions between microbial community and the associated ecosystem. They have allowed us in understanding the ongoing biogeochemical cycles in river sediments. This review article enumerates the application of metagenomics for river health monitoring. Key words River ecosystem; Metagenomics; Water quality index; Microbiome