ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 05 January 2017 doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.02123 Metagenomic Analysis of Hot Springs in Central India Reveals Hydrocarbon Degrading Thermophiles and Pathways Essential for Survival in Extreme Environments Rituja Saxena 1 †, Darshan B. Dhakan 1 †, Parul Mittal 1 †, Prashant Waiker 1, Anirban Chowdhury 2, Arundhuti Ghatak 2 and Vineet K. Sharma 1* 1 Metagenomics and Systems Biology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, India, 2 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal, India Extreme ecosystems such as hot springs are of great interest as a source of novel extremophilic species, enzymes, metabolic functions for survival and biotechnological Edited by: products. India harbors hundreds of hot springs, the majority of which are not yet Kian Mau Goh, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia explored and require comprehensive studies to unravel their unknown and untapped Reviewed by: phylogenetic and functional diversity. The aim of this study was to perform a large-scale Alexandre Soares Rosado, metagenomic analysis of three major hot springs located in central India namely, Badi Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Anhoni, Chhoti Anhoni, and Tattapani at two geographically distinct regions (Anhoni Brazil Mariana Lozada, and Tattapani), to uncover the resident microbial community and their metabolic traits. CESIMAR (CENPAT-CONICET), Samples were collected from seven distinct sites of the three hot spring locations with Argentina temperature ranging from 43.5 to 98◦C. The 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing *Correspondence: Vineet K. Sharma of V3 hypervariable region and shotgun metagenome sequencing uncovered a unique
[email protected] taxonomic and metabolic diversity of the resident thermophilic microbial community in †These authors have contributed these hot springs.