Comparison of microbial taxonomic and functional shift pattern along contamination gradient

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Yunhua Xiao¹  Huaqun Yin¹  Yili Liang¹  Jiaojiao Niu¹  Xian Zhang¹  Xueduan Liu¹  Youhua Ren²  Wenkun Huang³  Deliang Peng³ 

[1] School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, 410083, Changsha, China;Key laboratory of Biometallurgy, Ministry of Education, 410083, Changsha, China;School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, 410083, Changsha, China;Key laboratory of Biometallurgy, Ministry of Education, 410083, Changsha, China;College of Food Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, 410083, Changsha, China;State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 100193, Beijing, China;

关键词: Heavy metal contamination;    Microbial remediation;    Taxonomic and functional composition;    Null model test;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12866-016-0731-6

 received in 2015-12-20, accepted in 2016-06-06,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe interaction mechanism between microbial communities and environment is a key issue in microbial ecology. Microbial communities usually change significantly under environmental stress, which has been studied both phylogenetically and functionally, however which method is more effective in assessing the relationship between microbial communities shift and environmental changes still remains controversial.ResultsBy comparing the microbial taxonomic and functional shift pattern along heavy metal contamination gradient, we found that both sedimentary composition and function shifted significantly along contamination gradient. For example, the relative abundance of Geobacter and Fusibacter decreased along contamination gradient (from high to low), while Janthinobacterium and Arthrobacter increased their abundances. Most genes involved in heavy metal resistance (e.g., metc, aoxb and mer) showed higher intensity in sites with higher concentration of heavy metals. Comparing the two shift patterns, there were correlations between them, because functional and phylogenetic β-diversities were significantly correlated, and many heavy metal resistance genes were derived from Geobacter, explaining their high abundance in heavily contaminated sites. However, there was a stronger link between functional composition and environmental drivers, while stochasticity played an important role in formation and succession of phylogenetic composition demonstrated by null model test.ConclusionsOverall our research suggested that the responses of functional traits depended more on environmental changes, while stochasticity played an important role in formation and succession of phylogenetic composition for microbial communities. So profiling microbial functional composition seems more appropriate to study the relationship between microbial communities and environment, as well as explore the adaptation and remediation mechanism of microbial communities to heavy metal contamination.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016