Abstract
Anaerobic bacteria and methanogenic archaea at municipal landfill dumping sites play a vital role in the landfill ecology, waste degradation, global warming and climate change. Although landfill works as a cheap way of solid waste management, unmanaged landfill plays a significant role in spreading pollutants and pathogens in natural ecosystems. The genera Clostridium and Paraclostridium are important groups of anaerobic microbes from a public and environmental health perspective. In the present study, we have isolated different species of Clostridium and Paraclostridium from landfill leachate and performed a comparative analysis to understand their role in landfill ecology and public health. Our data indicate that the anoxic zone of landfills acts as a breeding ground for different species of Clostridium and Paraclostridium, including pathogenic species like C. sporogenes and C. argentinense and leachate, plays a crucial role in the spread of Clostridium in soil and water ecosystem and acts as one of the primary sources of a cause of infection in field workers. We also reported that VITEK and MALDI-TOF/MS are not ideal ways to identify Clostridium at the species level, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing should be the method of choice. In the current study, we also demonstrated that members of the genus Clostridium showed better growth response on Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) and Gifu Anaerobic Medium (GAM), and they can be one of the alternatives to existing media for cultivation and physiological studies of Clostridium.