Constructed wetlands are ecofriendly, cost effective technology involved in treatment of wastewaters. The goal of this study is focused on characterization of microbial community existing in constructed wetland system planted withCyperusalternifoliustreating sewage contaminated with heavy metals. The characteristics of effluent met the standards of discharge for inland use and irrigation. Microbes in constructed wetland apparently play a pivotal role in the efficiency of system for removal of organics, nutrients, suspended solids and heavy metal. To expose the active players in the lime light, a representative soil sample from the reed bed was collected and characterized for microbial community analysis. Metagenomic studies of the bacterial and fungal flora were identified. Results revealed that the phylum Proteobacteria (38.27%) and Ascomycota (77.47%) dominated in the bacterial and fungal kingdom respectively. However, in the bacterial kingdom at species level major portion remain unclassified exceptPseudomonasalcaligenesbut in the fungal kingdom at species level only 3.1% remain unclassified. The role of bacteria in wastewater treatment is exemplified in previous reports but the role of fungi in wastewater system needs exploration. However, the findings reveal that the identified microbes might have definitely played a vital role in wastewater treatment. The database available for the identification of bacterial species remain undiscovered for a major portion and requires up gradation. Next generation sequence being a high end technology in microbial ecology decodes the entire community in environmental samples but lack of database limits the identification. Implementation of improvements in the paucity of data bases is essential.

Constructed wetlands are ecofriendly, cost effective technology involved in treatment of wastewaters. The goal of this study is focused on characterization of microbial community existing in constructed wetland system planted with Cyperusalternifolius treating sewage contaminated with heavy metals. The characteristics of effluent met the standards of discharge for inland use and irrigation. Microbes in constructed wetland apparently play a pivotal role in the efficiency of system for removal of organics, nutrients, suspended solids and heavy metal. To expose the active players in the lime light, a representative soil sample from the reed bed was collected and characterized for microbial community analysis. Metagenomic studies of the bacterial and fungal flora were identified. Results revealed that the phylum Proteobacteria (38.27%) and Ascomycota (77.47%) dominated in the bacterial and fungal kingdom respectively. However, in the bacterial kingdom at species level major portion remain unclassified except Pseudomonasalcaligenes but in the fungal kingdom at species level only 3.1% remain unclassified. The role of bacteria in wastewater treatment is exemplified in previous reports but the role of fungi in wastewater system needs exploration. However, the findings reveal that the identified microbes might have definitely played a vital role in wastewater treatment. The database available for the identification of bacterial species remain undiscovered for a major portion and requires up gradation. Next generation sequence being a high end technology in microbial ecology decodes the entire community in environmental samples but lack of database limits the identification. Implementation of improvements in the paucity of data bases is essential.

Secondary metabolites play a vital role in the treatment of various ailments as well as in phytoremediation. The link between secondary metabolites and phytoremediation needs exploration. Hitherto, no information is available regarding the phytochemical components that exist in the root exudates of Cyperus alternifolius. This study was designed to determine the phytocomponents in the root exudates of C. alternifolius under heavy metal stress. C. alternifolius was grown by a novel technique in partial hydroponic conditions and imperiled to a mixture of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Pb, and Fe) at different concentrations. The root exudates were collected, freeze-dried, redissolved and reconstituted in hexane and analyzed in gas chromatography–mass spectrometry using JEOL GCMATE II in SAIF IIT-Madras. The analysis revealed that the profile of phytochemicals in root exudates is diverse with biological properties. Few phytochemicals found in the root exudates are not cited earlier in any literature. The composition and percentage of phytochemicals could not be correlated to heavy metal concentration. Phytochemical composition decreased with an increase in heavy metal concentration. Control plant released more phytochemicals than the plants under heavy metal stress. From the results, it is evident that root exudates of C. alternifolius contain various bioactive components. Further research can be extended to evaluate the pharmaceutical importance of the species and explore its role in phytoremediation of heavy metals.SUMMARY The control and test plants are grown under partial hydroponic condition. Test plants are subjected to heavy metal stress, root exudates were collected from control and test plants, freeze dried, constituted in hexane and subjected to GC-MS analysis. Abbreviations Used: GC-MS: Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry.

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