Exploring the taxonomic and functional diversity of marine benthic micro-Eukaryotes along the Red Sea coast of Jeddah city

BackgroundsDiverse marine habitats along Jeddah's Red Sea coast support rich biodiversity. Few studies have been done on its diverse communities, especially its microbial counterparts. Metagenomic analysis of marine benthic micro-eukaryotic communities was performed for the first time on the Red Sea coast of Jeddah. This research looks into their community structure and metabolic potential.MethodsNext-generation sequencing was used to examine the micro-eukaryotic communities of seven sedimentary soil samples from four Jeddah coast locations. After isolating DNA from seven benthic sedimentary soil samples, the 18S rDNA V4 regions were amplified and sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq. It was also verified using an Agilent Technologies 2100 Bioanalyzer with a DNA 1000 chip (Agilent Technologies, Fisher Scientific). A standard curve of fluorescence readings generated by qPCR quantification using the Illumina library was achieved using the GS FLX library. Metagenomic data analysis was used to evaluate the microbial communities' biochemical and enzymatic allocations in studied samples.ResultsBlast analysis showed that the top ten phyla were Annelida, Eukaryota, Diatomea, Porifera, Phragmoplastophyta, Arthropoda, Dinoflagellata, Xenacoelomorpha Nematoda, and uncultured. Annelida was also found in the highest percentage (93%), in the sample M followed by Porifera (64%), the most abundant in the control sample then Eukaryotes (61%), Phragmatoplastophyta (55%), Arthropoda, and Diatomea (the least common) (32%). community diversity analysis: using Shannon and inverse Simpson indices showed sediment composition to be effective. Also, PICRUST2 indicated that the most abundant pathways were pyruvate fermentation to isobutanol, pyrimidine deoxyribonucleotide phosphorylation, adenosine ribonucleotide de novo biosynthesis, guanosine ribonucleotide de novo biosynthesis, NAD salvage pathway I, the super pathway of glyoxylate bypass and aerobic respiration I (cytochrome c).ConclusionResults showed that high throughput metagenomics could reveal species diversity and estimate gene profiles. Environmental factors appear to be more important than geographic variation in determining the structure of these microbial communities. This study provides the first report of marine benthic micro-eukaryotic communities found on the Red Sea coast of Jeddah and will serve as a good platform for future research.