Comparative Study of Metagenomic Profile of Bacteria Strains Present in an Abandoned Artisanal Refinery Site, in Obi-Ayagha Community, Delta State, Nigeria

Aim: The aim of the study is to identify and compare the bacteria strains present in the control and Hydrocarbon impacted soil samples in the abandoned artisanal refinery site located in Obi-Ayagha community, Delta State, using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Place and Duration of Study: The Hydrocarbon impacted soil was collected from the abandoned artisanal refinery site located in Obi-Ayagha community and analysed in the advanced research laboratory of the Department of Environmental Management and Toxicology, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun between 2022 and 2023. Methodology: In the present study, soil samples were collected from five points to cover the expanse of the site, from depths of 0–15 cm of the abandoned artisanal site and composited. The bacterial community profile was analyzed using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and the bacteria species were identified from Kingdom to species level. Results: Taxonomical classification of bacteria, revealed the most abundant organisms present in each kingdom, phyla, class, in the contaminated and uncontaminated (control) samples. The dominant species at phylum-level microbial diversity identified in the petroleum-contaminated and  uncontaminated site, is depicted by the dominant groups and were found to be the Actinobacteriota (21.94%) for the control in comparison the Firmicutes dominated the phylum with percentage occurrence of (99.86%) for the test samples. At the class level, the dominant group was Alphaproteobacteria (16.48%) for the control, while Bacilli dominated the class showing (99.76%) for the test samples. Conclusion: Metagenomic profiling helps to predict the presence and relative abundances of microbes in a sample, which is a critical step in microbiome analysis.