Metagenomics: A resilience approach to climate change and conservation of the African Glacier biodiversity

Cold-adapted prokaryotes are diverse, and they are potential sources of cold-active enzymes and freeze-resistant proteins that can be used as cryoprotectants in food and pharmaceutical industries, hence leveraging bioeconomy in Africa. However, the diversity of cold-adapted prokaryotes on Lewis Glacier and African equatorial glaciers is understudied for diversity and bioprospecting potential. Our recent study on Lewis Glacier on Mount Kenya using 16S rRNA amplicon sequences revealed abundant and diverse prokaryotic community structures across the glacier and its foreland. The major bacterial phyla identified from the glacier included Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria, which are likely to be extinct in the next decades due to climate change and rapid glacier disappearance. The fine- and broad-scale amplicon sequence analyses of these cold-adapted species would significantly contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Number for improved bioeconomy and shared prosperity across Africa.