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Next Generation High Throughput Sequencing to Assess Microbial Communities: An Application Based on Water Quality

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Abstract

Traditional techniques to identify different contaminants (biological or chemical) in the waters are slow, laborious, and can require specialized expertise. Hence, the rapid determination of water quality using more sensitive and reliable metagenomic based approaches attains special importance. Metagenomics deals with the study of genetic material that is recovered from microbial communities present in environmental samples. In traditional techniques cultivation-based methodologies were used to describe the diversity of microorganisms in environmental samples. It has failed to function as a robust marker because of limited taxonomic and phylogenetic implications. In this backdrop, high-throughput DNA sequencing approaches have proven very powerful in microbial source tracking because of investigating the full variety of genome-based analysis such as microbial genetic diversity and population structure played by them. Next generation sequencing technologies can reveal a greater proportion of microbial communities that have not been reported earlier by traditional techniques. The present review highlights the shift from traditional techniques for the basic study of community composition to next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and their potential applications to the biomonitoring of water quality in relation to human health.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support by DST-SERB, Govt. of India under the National Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Grant No. PDF/20l8/001689) to GAW is acknowledged. The grant to MAS under the DBT supported Indo-Canadian project No. BT/IN/IC-IMPACTS/30/MAS/2015-2016 to MAS under IC-Impacts on ‘Biomonitoring of water quality in relation to human health using biosensors and nanoparticle based purification system’ is also acknowledged.

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  1. Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, 190 006, India

    Gowher A. Wani, Mohd Asgar Khan, Mudasir A. Dar, Manzoor A. Shah & Zafar A. Reshi

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  1. Gowher A. Wani
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Wani, G.A., Khan, M.A., Dar, M.A. et al. Next Generation High Throughput Sequencing to Assess Microbial Communities: An Application Based on Water Quality. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 106, 727–733 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03195-7

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