Genome recovery from metagenomics data and functional analysis of soil microbiome from Whalers Bay: Antarctic samples

Abstract

Isolation, metagenomics and metataxonomics studies conducted by the research team from the Microbial Resources Division, CPQBA, Unicamp, showed that the most abundant bacterial groups with biotechnological potential from South Shetlands Islands, in Maritime Antarctic, are members of the genera Arthrobacter, Chryseobacterium/Flavobacterium, Polaromonas and Psychrobacter. Based on this background information, the present study aims to develop and improve knowledge based on data analysis of the microbiota of Whalers Bay, Deception Island - Maritime through the use of different bioinformatics tools, e.g. Binning and Metatranscriptomics. The project has three main objectives: (i) metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) recovery from shotgun sequencing of sediment samples of Whalers Bay, Deception - Maritime Antarctica, collected during expeditions in three different summers; and (ii) mapping of the metatranscriptomic reads to the most relevant MAGs to uncover the main metabolic pathways and operons; and (iii) to relate the results obtained from biological samples to the corresponding physicochemical data. For the accomplishment of the first two goals, specific bioinformatic analyses will be carried out using the three-year metagenomic data and the metatranscriptomic data from one summer (2017). based on the obtained results, we expect to describe new genomes and putative new genes and, consequently molecules, allowing to broaden the understanding of the abiotic stresses to which these microorganisms are exposed along the years. (AU)