Farah Aisha Mohd Haniff, Hasdianty Abdullah, Mohd Fadzli Ahmad, Maegala Nallapan Maniyam, Hazeeq Hazwan Azman, Nazahiyah Sulaiman and Nor Suhaila Yaacob

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SHOTGUN METAGENOMIC ANALYSIS OF MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES IN THE KUANG INERT LANDFILL ECOSYSTEM  

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Abstract 

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Landfills are manmade ecosystems that contain diverse and frequently unidentified microbial species that can influence environmental quality through metabolic processes. However, there is a lack of knowledge of microbial diversity in inert landfill environments, especially in tropical regions. This study aimed analyze microbial community structure and functional potential of soil and leachate samples from Kuang Inert Landfills in Selangor, Malaysia. Soil and leachate were collected from selected points across the site and pooled separately to obtain one composite soil sample and one composite leachate sample for downstream metagenomic analysis. Metagenomic DNA was extracted and sequenced by the Illumina shotgun approach. The abundance of bacteria was higher in both soil (41.19%) and leachate (22.73%), while archaea were more abundant in the leachate (3.77%). A large number of sequences, especially from leachate, remained unclassified, implying the presence of novel or understudied microorganisms. Thauera sp. are the most abundant species in soil. The most abundant species in soil are Thauera sp. GDN1, Thauera humireducens, and Pseudoxanthomonas mexicana, which play important roles in denitrification and bioremediation. In contrast, Methanoculleus bourgensis, Methanoculleus chikugoensis, and Bacteroides graminisolvens were abundant in the leachate samples, which are related to anaerobic digestion and methane production. The KEGG functional analysis showed pathways associated with microbial metabolism in different environments, carbon metabolism, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis in both samples. Methane metabolism was more significant in the leachate. The results emphasize the importance of microbial communities within the landfill for organic material degradation, methane production, and potential bioremediation. This work serves as a base for further studies on waste management, environmental sustainability, and pollution prevention and control.

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