Metagenome microbial diversity in water-soil sample of Pangong Tso lake

High altitude lakes in Himalayas represent a unique microbial biodiversity that is exposed to extreme environmental conditions such as freezing temperature, hypersalinity, high UV radiation, low oxygen, limited nutrients, etc. Pangong Tso Lake in Leh -Ladhak, India (33.819770”N, 78.614501”E) is one such high grassland lake. It is situated at a height of about 4,350 m (14,270 ft.) in North West Himalayas. During winter the lake freezes completely, despite being saline water. We present a metagenome diversity in soil-water mixture of Pangong Tso Lake, Leh -Ladhak, India. Metagenomic DNA sequencing and taxonomic classification showed that 99.22 % microbial diversity represent bacteroidetes (35.97), Firmicutes (31.27), Proteobacteria (22.56), Tenericutes (8.38), and Planctomycetes (1.04). The remaining microbial diversity represent Verrucomicrobia (0.23), Actinobacteria (0.23), Spirochaetes (0.09), Acidobacteria (0.09), Cyanobacteria (0.05), Gemmatimonadetes (0.03), Thermi (0.03), TM6 (0.02), and SR1 (0.01). Interestingly, a fraction of bacterial diversity (0.05%) was unclassified.