Metagenomic Analysis of a Concrete Bridge Reveals a Microbial Community Dominated by Halophilic Bacteria and Archaea.

ABSTRACT: Concrete hosts a small but diverse microbiome that changes over time. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing would enable assessment of both the diversity and function of the microbial community in concrete, but a number of unique challenges make this difficult for concrete samples. The high concentration of divalent cations in concrete interferes with nucleic acid extraction, and the extremely low biomass in concrete means that DNA from laboratory contamination may be a large fraction of the sequence data. Here, we develop an improved method for DNA extraction from concrete, with higher yield and lower laboratory contamination. To show that this method provides DNA of sufficient quality and quantity to do shotgun metagenomic sequencing, DNA was extracted from a sample of concrete obtained from a

SUBMITTER: Kiledal EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10434110 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature