Investigating the Diversity and Potential Applications of the Microbiome at Al­Lith Province Hot Springs

Background: Extreme ecosystems, such as hot springs, are of great interest as a source of novel extremophilic biodiversity, enzymes, survival metabolic functions, and biotechno-logical products. In hot springs, physicochemical factors such as temperature, pH, and mineral content influence microbial communities. In this study, we aimed to investigate the microbial diversity in the water, spring sediments, and wet-shore sediments of the Al-Lith hot spring in Saudi Arabia. Methods: To assess the microbial diversity and identify potential applications, we conducted metagenomic analyses. Results: The phyla cyanobacteria, Chloroflexi , and protobacteria were dominant in samples collected from water, spring sediment, and wet-shore sediments, respectively. In all three samples, Thaumarcheotal was the most important phylum in the Archaea domain, whereas Mucoromycete was the most important phylum in the eukaryotic domain. Functional potential analysis of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database revealed that metabolic activi-ties were the most prominent, followed by genetic information, environmental information, cellular and human diseases, and organismal processes. Carbohydrate-active enzymes annotation showed that six main groups of enzymes were present: glycoside hydrolases, glycosyl transferases, carbohydrate-binding modules, carbohydrate esterases, polysaccharide lyases, and auxiliary activities. Functional classification of eggNOG re-vealed unknown functions, followed by amino acid transport and metabolism, energy production, replication, recombination, repair, and conversion. Conclusion: The microbial diversity in the Al-Lith hot spring includes a variety of microorganism species that can potentially be used in biotechnology as a novel source of untapped functional potential for various biotechnological and environmental applications.