An evaluation of the bacterial diversity at Tshipise, Mphephu and Sagole hot water springs, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Tshipise, Mphephu and Sagole are thermal hot water springs in the Limpopo Province of South Africa with temperatures of 58, 43 and 45°C; and pH of 8.85, 8.08 and 9.70, respectively. The bacterial diversity of the hot water springs was determined by pyrosequencing of the two 16S rRNA hypervariable regions V1-3 and V4-7. Analyses of the community DNA revealed that bacterial populations as detectable by the V1-3 or V4-7 region, respectively were dominated by the Bacteriodetes and Proteobacteria for Mphephu, and Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria for both Tshipise and Sagole. The major differences in the bacterial diversity between the springs was that no Cyanobacteria were detected for Mphephu and the level of Bacteriodetes detected for both Tshipise and Sagole was much lower compared to the levels detected at Mphephu. The Firmicutes were detected at all the springs but at a much lower abundance compared to the other main phyla detected. Various other phyla were detected at the hot springs at levels below 0.20% of the total sequences obtained. It is interesting that very diverse bacterial genera exist in the three hot water springs studied.This research was supported through a grant from Water Research Commission (WRC, SA, Project K5/1959/1).http://www.academicjournals.org/AJM

Metagenomic analysis of bacterial diversity of Siloam hot water spring, Limpopo, South Africa

The bacterial diversity of Siloam hot water spring was determined using 454 pyrosequencing of two 16S rRNA variable regions V1-3 and V4-7. Analysis of the community DNA revealed that the phyla Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Bacteriodetes, Planctomycetes, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi and Verrucomicrobia were the most abundant. The bacterial diversity detectable and classifiable was greater when the V4-7 variable region was used compared to the V1-3 region. The most abundant bacteria genera detected with region V1-3 were; Stenotrophomonas (23.3%), Aquaspirillum (5.11%), Zavarzinella (2.73%), Haliscomenobacteria (1.25%), Rheinheimera (1.14%) and Tepidomonas (1.14%). All the other detectable genera were below 0.6%. Genera detected with region V4-7 from most abundant were; Stenotrophomonas (17.96%), Zavarzinella (5.81%), Aquaspirillum (4.75%), Rheinheimera (3.52%), GPI (1.41%), Gemmata (1.41%) and Syntrophobacter (1.06%). All the other genera detected were below 0.7%. Siloam is one of the hottest thermal springs in South Africa (63°C), the water has a pH of 9.5 and is relatively high in fluoride and bromide; it is possible that the physicochemical properties could have some influence on the diversity of bacteria. This article reports on the first phylogenetic analysis of a South African thermal spring bacterial community.This research was supported through a grant from Water Research Commission (WRC, SA, Project K5/1959/1).http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBnf201