AI Article Synopsis

  • Microorganisms adapt to environmental stress, but their response to long-term heavy metal contamination in natural conditions is not well understood; this study focused on the Mang River, heavily polluted for over 40 years.
  • The sediment samples showed high concentrations of metals like Cr, Zn, and Pb, with two-thirds at or above moderate ecological risk levels, indicating significant impact on the microbial community and its resistance genes.
  • The research revealed that a heavy metal-resistant microbiome likely developed through the spread of insertion sequences (ISs) carrying multiple metal resistance genes (MRGs), suggesting ISs play a key role in microbial adaptation to heavy metal stress.

Article Abstract

Microorganisms have developed mechanisms to adapt to environmental stress, but how microbial communities adapt to long-term and combined heavy-metal contamination under natural environmental conditions remains unclear. Specifically, this study analyzed the characteristics of heavy metal composition, microbial community, and heavy metal resistance genes (MRGs) in sediments along Mang River, a tributary of the Yellow River, which has been heavily polluted by industrial production for more than 40 years. The results showed that the concentrations of Cr, Zn, Pb, Cu and As in most sediments were higher than the ambient background values. Bringing the heavy metals speciation and concentration into the risk evaluation method, two-thirds of the sediment samples were at or above the moderate risk level, and the ecological risk of combined heavy metals in the sediments decreased along the river stream. The high ecological risk of heavy metals affected the microbial community structure, metabolic pathways and MRG distribution. The formation of a HM-resistant microbiome possibly occurred through the spread of insertion sequences (ISs) carrying multiple MRGs, the types of ISs carrying MRGs outnumber those of plasmids, and the quantity of MRGs on ISs is also higher than that on plasmids. These findings could improve our understanding of the adaptation mechanism of microbial communities to long-term combined heavy metal contamination.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.118861DOI Listing

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