Cataloguing biodiversity of freshwater communities in two lakes of Gadchiroli area of central India using environmental DNA analysis

We investigated eukaryote biodiversity in two freshwater lakes in the Aashti area of Gadchiroli in central India, using next-generation sequencing-based technology. In this preliminary study, we analyzed four water samples using metabarcoding of the 18s V6 region of mitochondrial DNA, and detected >500 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). We detected algae, dinoflagellates, rotifers, ciliates, and metazoan species and our results indicate that algae and rotifers were the most abundant groups in these lakes.