FUNCTIONAL METAGENOMIC ANALYSIS OF MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES IN AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS

Abstract

In its current study, the authors examine the microbial communities and functional gene composition of the agricultural soils to clarify their functions on the productivity and sustainability of the ecosystem. The samples of soil were acquired at the opposite agricultural systems such as conventional and organic method of farming in order to realize variability of microbial composition as well as function. The high throughput shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed on the total genomic DNA and then analysis using bioinformatics was conducted in which quality control, sequence assembly and functional annotation of the results with the help of the existing databases like KEGG and COG were performed. The findings showed that there was great difference in the structure of the microbial community in a variety of agricultural environments with characteristic diversity patterns depending on the management practices. The range of metabolically significant genes that were identified in functional profiling were numerous and included those of nitrogen fixation, carbon cycling, phosphorus metabolism, among other essential biogeochemical mechanisms. It is also important to note that organic farming systems had better functional diversity and greater number of genes related to nutrient recycling and soil health than conventional systems. Such findings suggest that the micro biome of the soil is essential in controlling the functions of agricultural eco systems and the functional metagenomic is important in understanding the contribution of the microbial role in soil fertility. The research gives an insightful information on the development of micro biome-based approaches to sustainable agriculture and a better way of managing the soil.