Microbial community of a peatland located in northern part of French Guiana was studied using Illumina based sequencing. Soil sampling was carried out at two sites of this peatland in October 2013 (dry season). Nine sampling points were established at 2,500 m2 areas of natural and drained study sites. On the drained site, the three first sampling points located at 50 m distance from 2-3 m deep drainage ditch. Three topsoil cores (0–10 cm layer) from each sampling point were collected and pooled to form a composite sample.DNA samples were purified with Genomic DNA Clean and Concentrator (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA, USA) according to the protocol provided by manufacturer. Paired-end sequencing libraries were constructed for each sample using the TruSeq DNA PCR-Free Library Preparation Kit (Illumina, San Diego, Ca, USA) according to the manufacturer`s instructions. DNA concentrations of the individual samples were quantified with Qubit Fluorometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., MA, USA) and finally the samples DNA was pooled in equal proportions. The library was sequenced on the NextSeq 500 Illumina sequencing system (Illumina, San Diego, Ca, USA).