Metagenomic and microbial analysis of sediment in water from students' communities
What microorganisms live in our local water systems? While some of these organisms may be beneficial, such as aerobic bacteria which maintain clean conditions by decomposing organic waste, others are disease-causing pathogens such as Salmonella or E. coli which can pose a risk to the health of humans and wildlife. Water systems and human populations living in close proximity influence one another and should therefore be investigated. Sediment samples from 8 sites chosen by students underwent metagenomic and microbiological analysis to reveal possible sources and impacts of microbiota in sediment in the water.
Photo above courtesy of Roman Eugeniusz.
Quality over time as the samples were sequenced. The x-axis is time from beginning of sequencing, and y-axis is the Q (quality) score. The solid blue line and blue region are the average and spread of quality, and the red region is the threshold where quality would be too poor.
