Metagenomic Profiling of Soil Microbial Communities in Chromium-Contaminated Tannery Sludge

Tanneries are generating a significant amount of toxic chromium-containing sludges that severely threaten the soil ecosystem. Remediation of chromium from tannery sludge and contaminated soils using metal-resistant microbial diversity is receiving increasing global focus. The metagenomics technique is a potent tool for examining the biodiversity of soil microbial communities. The present study employed metagenomics techniques to decode and screen metagenomes to assess their diversity in chromium-contaminated soil. The 16S rDNA genes were amplified using versatile primers from the isolated total microbial DNA from the soil. The PCR amplicons were sequenced to evaluate the prokaryotic diversity and metagenomes were assessed. The finding of this study revealed that the ten most abundant dominant bacteria in soil samples were Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Archaea. Meanwhile, Nitrososphaerales exhibited the highest abundance in the control samples it accounts for 48% of microbial diversity used for contaminated soil remediation. This study provides an in-depth analysis of microbial composition and metagenomics for bioremediation of metal contamination soil. It suggests that metagenomes can effectively degrade chromium from the environment. However, more research is needed to investigate the potential of Acidobacteria and other microbes, focusing on their resistance and transformation abilities to combat heavy metal contamination.