Phylogenetic diversity and functional potential of the microbial communities along the Bay of Bengal coast

Abstract

The Bay of Bengal, the world's largest bay, is bordered by populous countries and rich in resources like fisheries, oil, gas, and minerals, while also hosting diverse marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds; regrettably, its microbial diversity and ecological significance have received limited research attention. Here, we present amplicon (16S and 18S) profiling and shotgun metagenomics data regarding microbial communities from BoB’s eastern coast, viz., Saint Martin and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. From the 16S barcoding data, Proteobacteria appeared to be the dominant phylum in both locations, with Alteromonas, Methylophaga, Anaerospora, Marivita, and Vibrio dominating in Cox’s Bazar and Pseudoalteromonas, Nautella, Marinomonas, Vibrio, and Alteromonas dominating the Saint Martin site. From the 18S barcoding data, Ochrophyta, Chlorophyta, and Protalveolata appeared among the most abundant eukaryotic divisions in both locations, with significantly higher abundance of Choanoflagellida, Florideophycidae, and Dinoflagellata in Cox’s Bazar. The shotgun sequencing data reveals that in both locations, Alteromonas is the most prevalent bacterial genus, closely paralleling the dominance observed in the metabarcoding data, with Methylophaga in Cox’s Bazar and Vibrio in Saint Martin. Functional annotations revealed that the microbial communities in these samples harbor genes for biofilm formation, quorum sensing, xenobiotics degradation, antimicrobial resistance, and a variety of other processes. Together, these results provide the first molecular insight into the functional and phylogenetic diversity of microbes along the BoB coast of Bangladesh. This baseline understanding of microbial community structure and functional potential will be critical for assessing impacts of climate change, pollution, and other anthropogenic disturbances on this ecologically and economically vital bay.