Received: 12 th July-2014 Revised: 3 rd Aug-2014 Accepted: 4 th Aug-2014 Research article PCR BASED IDENTIFICATION OF MICROBIAL COMMUNITY IN USAGE WATER OF SLUM AREAS IN HYDERABAD L.Vinay Sagar 1 , Nafiseh Karoubi 2 , E.Maruthi Prasad 3 , Lakshmi Devi 4 1 Department of Biotechnology, Akshaya Biological Corporation, Himayath nagar, Hyderabad, Telangana. India. 2 Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana. India 3,4 Department of Biochemistry, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapuram, Andhra Pradesh. India *Corresponding Author Address Mail: jayasimharayalu@gmail.com ABSTRACT: Due to rapid urbanization in a context of economic constraints, the majority of urban residents in Hyderabad live in slums often characterized by a lack of basic services such as water and sewerage. Consequently, the urban poor often use inexpensive pit latrines and at the same time may draw domestic water from nearby local taps. Overcrowding in slums limits the adequate distance between taps and pit latrines so that micro-organisms migrate from latrines to water sources. Sanitary practices in these overcrowded slums are also poor, leading to contamination of this tap water. The DNA sequencing results indicated the microbial diversity, revealing that the dominant bacteria present in Khairathabad slum area of Hyderabad is Acinetobacter sp. whereas the dominant bacteria in Varasiguda slum area of Hyderabad is Alpha-proteobacteria. Futhermore, cluster analysis of the DGGE profiles indicated significant diversity in the bacterial community by depicting two distinct clusters for each waste water treatment plant. These data endorse the ability of PCR-DGGE method to identify and characterize bacterial community from Usage water. Key words: Usage water, PCR-DGGE, Bacterial diversity INTRODUCTION Rapid urban growth in a climate of economic constraints has resulted in the majority of residents in India’s large cities, and an increasing proportion of Indians overall, living in overcrowded slums and shantytowns. In these slums and shantytowns, health conditions and livelihood opportunities are poor. The need for clean water is increasing and wastewater treatment can be used as a cost-effective solution for purification of organically polluted industrial waste streams (Watanabe and Baker, 2000). Moreover, the presence of slums and their unhealthy environment within Rajshahi City Corporation is an ever-present threat of public health. They have no proper arrangement of water supply and sanitation system which has created an adverse effect on city’s environment. A few numbers (13%) of the households use apparently good latrines, which are not fully hygienic. Among the rest households 15% use open latrines and 72% use ring slab latrine without water seal. Some organizations are trying to improve the condition of water supply and sanitation facilities for urban poor in Rajshahi City with different approaches. But the crisis of water supply and sanitation facilities is a common feature in daily life of urban slum poor. So, it is an immediate concern to study the approaches of different organizations related to water and sanitation facilities for urban poor in this city. Application of molecular biology techniques allows us to detect and enumerate microorganisms in their natural habitat and so to determine the structure, function and dynamics of bacterial communities. Of the various approaches for the understandings of microbial community structures in nature, comparative analysis of 16S rRNA sequence of microorganisms has been universally applied, due to the ubiquity of ribosomal RNA molecules in all microorganisms, to infer relationships among organisms (Pederson et al., 1996; Wise et al., 1999; Lee et al., 2000). International Journal of Applied Biology and Pharmaceutical Technology Page: 43 Available online at www.ijabpt.com