Manish P Victor, Nawaf Al Shehri, Didrik H Grevskott, Walied M Alarif, Aasim M Ali, Nachiket P Marathe
Wastewater is a major point source of pollution and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment. The aim of this study was to determine the microbiota and antimicrobial resistance genes present in both the influent and effluent from a biological wastewater treatment plant situated in Jeddah Second Industrial City, Saudi Arabia, using metagenomics. Water samples were collected, and the DNA extracted from these samples was subjected to metagenomic sequencing (one influent and one effluent) using Illumina NovaSeq. Our analysis yielded ∼88 Gigabases. The predominant bacterial genera identified were Actinomycetota, Psuedomonadota, and Bacillota, and β-lactamases emerged as the most common class of resistance genes. Eventhough these are unreplicated single observations they are expected to be a valuable resource for researchers focusing on wastewater studies, especially in the middle East, offering insights into bacterial diversity and the spectrum of resistomes associated with these microbial communities.