PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

This study explores the microbial diversity within the newly discovered UNISEL Bird Sanctuary using a metagenomics approach. The objective was to establish the first baseline shotgun metagenomic profile of the UNISEL Bird Sanctuary soil microbiome to support future ecological, environmental, and conservation research. Soil samples were subjected to whole-genome shotgun sequencing to characterise microbial community structure and functional potential. Approximately 2.85 million contigs were generated, predicting 3,282,381 genes. Taxonomic profiling using Kraken 2 showed that bacteria represented a major proportion of the community, accounting for approximately 30.01% of clean reads and 34.83% of assembled contigs. A large number of reads remained unclassified, indicating the presence of potentially novel microbial diversity. Functional annotation successfully classified 44% of coding genes against databases including RefSeq, Swiss-Prot, InterProScan, eggNOG, MEGARes, and KEGG. Comparative metagenomic analysis with publicly available datasets revealed similarities and differences in taxonomic composition, Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG) classification, and metal resistance genes. The UNISEL Bird Sanctuary soil sample (S3) exhibited higher abundances of copper, iron, and mercury resistance genes, suggesting adaptation to specific environmental conditions. This study highlights the importance of documenting microbial diversity for ecosystem health monitoring, ecological understanding, and conservation planning. Further studies involving deeper sequencing and advanced analyses are required to better understand the functions and adaptive mechanisms of uncharacterised microbial communities in this ecosystem.