Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Water and Sediment Nile Microbial Community Along an Urban Metropolis.

Assessing microbial identity, diversity, and community structure could be a valuable tool for monitoring the impact of xenobiotics and anthropogenic inputs in rivers, especially in urban and industrial settings. Here, we characterize the Nile River microbial community in water and sediments in summer and winter at five locations that span its natural flow through the Cairo metropolis. 16S rRNA gene datasets were analyzed to identify the role played by sample type (sediment versus water), season, and location in shaping the community, as well as to predict functional potential of the Nile River microbiome.

The Nile River Microbiome Reveals a Remarkably Stable Community Between Wet and Dry Seasons, and Sampling Sites, in a Large Urban Metropolis (Cairo, Egypt).

World freshwater supplies are in need of microbiome diversity analyses as a first step to future ecological studies, and to monitor water safety and quality. The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa that displays both spatial and temporal variations in its water quality. Here, we present the first microbiome analysis of the Nile River water in two seasons: (1) summer representing the wet season, and (2) winter representing the dry season, as sampled around Cairo, the capital of Egypt.