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 \nmicroorganism. Some of water microorganism can be an indicator for river water \nquality. The aim of this study is to investigate the diversity of microorganism in \nSungai Tanah Merah. The water samples were taken and isolation of these \nmicroorganisms had been done by using serial dilution and streaking method. The \nmorphology of pure colony of bacteria was done by using gram staining method in \norder to differentiate the bacteria according to their group, gram positive and gram \nnegative bacteria and it also used as it serve the simplest test to observe the \nmorphology of bacteria present in river water. As a result, five gram positive and \nthree gram positive bacteria found in that study area. Pure colony of bacteria was \ncultured in Luria Broth. Cultured bacteria were used for DNA extraction in order to \nisolate DNA from bacteria sample. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was \nconducted for 30 cycles. The result showed multiple bands in PCR products which \nindicate that the samples were contaminated with organic substance such as salts. \nHowever, morphological of bacteria cannot be used to determine bacteria at species \nlevel. Therefore, further study on molecular based method must be conducted.