Plankton community composition and biodiversity in the Nile River near Khartoum

This project aimed to assess the riverine plankton communities in the White and Blue Niles using eDNA metabarcoding. The research involved taking bi-weekly environmental samples over two periods: from December 2017 to April 2018 and from October 2019 to March 2020. The study's methodology included DNA extraction from each unsorted sample to obtain the metagenome, followed by targeted PCR, and then Illumina next-generation sequencing to capture the targeted barcode regions. The raw sequence reads were then analyzed to understand the community composition and biodiversity. The primary goal is to establish a foundational understanding necessary to help initiate a long-term monitoring program on the Nile River in Sudan.