Accessing Genetic Diversity and Phylogenetic Analysis of Microbial Population of Soil from Hygam Wetland of Kashmir Valley

Assessing microbial diversity of a region is important for understanding ecosystem functions and processes. The cold wetlands of the Himalayas are relatively unexplored for the microbial diversity. In the present study, one such wetland of the Kashmir region, Hygam Wetland (34°13′30′′-34°16′4′′N and 74°30′27′′-74°32′33′′E), was chosen for determination of the microbial diversity. Metagenomic DNA was extracted and 16S r-RNA gene was amplified followed by sequencing and BLASTn analysis of the sequences. Phylogenetic tree of identified sequences was made by pairwise alignment followed by tree generation using Clustal omega. In the BLASTn analysis, similarity with Bacillus safensis, uncultured Lysinibacillus C1A14-2 and uncultured clone 4015B10 was observed. Further, the microbes cultured from Hygam soil were identified using biochemical tests. These included Shigella species, Salmonella choleraesuis, Citrobacter species and Escherichia coli.