Complete metagenome sequencing based bacterial diversity and functional insights from basaltic hot spring of Unkeshwar, Maharashtra, India

Unkeshwar hot springs are located at geographical South East Deccan Continental basalt of India. Here, we report the microbial community analysis of this hot spring using whole metagenome shotgun sequencing approach. The analysis revealed a total of 848,096 reads with 212.87 Mbps with 50.87% G + C content. Metagenomic sequences were deposited in SRA database with accession number (SUB1242219). Community analysis revealed 99.98% sequences belonging to bacteria and 0.01% to archaea and 0.01% to Viruses. The data obtained revealed 41 phyla including bacteria and Archaea and including 719 different species. In taxonomic analysis, the dominant phyla were found as, Actinobacteria (56%), Verrucomicrobia (24%), Bacteriodes (13%), Deinococcus-Thermus (3%) and firmicutes (2%) and Viruses (2%). Furthermore, functional annotation using pathway information revealed dynamic potential of hot spring community in terms of metabolism, environmental information processing, cellular processes and other important aspects. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis of each contig sequence by assigning KEGG Orthology (KO) numbers revealed contig sequences that were assigned to metabolism, organismal system, Environmental Information Processing, cellular processes and human diseases with some unclassified sequences. The Unkeshwar hot springs offer rich phylogenetic diversity and metabolic potential for biotechnological applications. Keywords: hot spring, metagenome, shotgun sequencing, microbial diversity, Unkeshwa