Metagenomic Analysis of Activated Sludge. activated sludge metagenome

Metagenome of activated biomass in a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) treating wastewater generated from cluster of industries (More than 100 in number) We are a group working in environmental genomics and focus on pollution removal strategies from environmental niches. A part of this work involves analyzing microbial diversity of the target niche. This diversity is not based only on 16S, but also on the catabolic capacity (or degradative genotype) available in the niche. The model of this study is a wastewater treatment system (that receives wastewater from more than 100 different industries) that is responsible for reducing the pollution generated by these industries from reaching the environment. The wastewater is treated biologically by activated sludge process, to reduce the COD and the treated wastewater is subsequently released into the environment. This activated sludge is home to diverse bacteria which are responsible for the degradation of harmful pollutants (mixture of compounds since there are many contributing industries like pharma, dyes, chemicals etc). Our aim is to study the bacteria in this niche and look for their identification as well as new catabolic pathways in this niche. Hence, we sequenced the metagenome from this niche using FLX platform.