Screening and identification of water microorganisms from Sungai Kelantan, Tanah Merah to determine the diversity of Microbiota

River is classified as freshwater ecosystem which contains various type of
microorganism. Some of water microorganism can be an indicator for river water
quality. The aim of this study is to investigate the diversity of microorganism in
Sungai Tanah Merah. The water samples were taken and isolation of these
microorganisms had been done by using serial dilution and streaking method. The
morphology of pure colony of bacteria was done by using gram staining method in
order to differentiate the bacteria according to their group, gram positive and gram
negative bacteria and it also used as it serve the simplest test to observe the
morphology of bacteria present in river water. As a result, five gram positive and
three gram positive bacteria found in that study area. Pure colony of bacteria was
cultured in Luria Broth. Cultured bacteria were used for DNA extraction in order to
isolate DNA from bacteria sample. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was
conducted for 30 cycles. The result showed multiple bands in PCR products which
indicate that the samples were contaminated with organic substance such as salts.
However, morphological of bacteria cannot be used to determine bacteria at species
level. Therefore, further study on molecular based method must be conducted.