Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan;20(1):98-111.
doi: 10.1111/gbi.12472. Epub 2021 Sep 20.

Metagenomic analysis of microbial communities across a transect from low to highly hydrocarbon-contaminated soils in King George Island, Maritime Antarctica

Diogo Jurelevicius  1 , Raphael da Silva Pereira  1 , Fabio Faria da Mota  2 , Juliano C Cury  3 , Ivan Cardoso de Oliveira  1 , Alexandre S Rosado  1   4 , Olivia U Mason  5 , Janet K Jansson  6 , Lucy Seldin  1
Affiliations

Metagenomic analysis of microbial communities across a transect from low to highly hydrocarbon-contaminated soils in King George Island, Maritime Antarctica

Diogo Jurelevicius et al. Geobiology. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Soil samples from a transect from low to highly hydrocarbon-contaminated soils were collected around the Brazilian Antarctic Station Comandante Ferraz (EACF), located at King George Island, Antarctica. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA genes, 16S rRNA gene (iTag), and shotgun metagenomic sequencing were used to characterize microbial community structure and the potential for petroleum degradation by indigenous microbes. Hydrocarbon contamination did not affect bacterial abundance in EACF soils (bacterial 16S rRNA gene qPCR). However, analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed a successive change in the microbial community along the pollution gradient. Microbial richness and diversity decreased with the increase of hydrocarbon concentration in EACF soils. The abundance of Cytophaga, Methyloversatilis, Polaromonas, and Williamsia was positively correlated (p-value = <.05) with the concentration of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Annotation of metagenomic data revealed that the most abundant hydrocarbon degradation pathway in EACF soils was related to alkyl derivative-PAH degradation (mainly methylnaphthalenes) via the CYP450 enzyme family. The abundance of genes related to nitrogen fixation increased in EACF soils as the concentration of hydrocarbons increased. The results obtained here are valuable for the future of bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils in polar environments.

Keywords: Antarctic microbiome; bioremediation; hydrocarbon degradation; metagenomic analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Abbasian, F., Lockington, R., Mallavarapu, M., & Naidu, R. (2015). A comprehensive review of aliphatic hydrocarbon biodegradation by bacteria. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 176, 670-699. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-015-1603-5
    1. Aislabie, J. M., Ryburn, J., Gutierrez-Zamora, M.-L., Rhodes, P., Hunter, D., Sarmah, A. K., Barker, G. M., & Farrell, R. L. (2012). Hexadecane mineralization activity in hydrocarbon-contaminated soils of Ross Sea region Antarctica may require nutrients and inoculation. Soil Biology Biochemistry, 45, 49-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2011.10.001
    1. Aislabie, J., Saul, D. J., & Foght, J. M. (2006). Bioremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated polar soils. Extremophiles, 10, 171-179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-005-0498-4
    1. Amir, A., McDonald, D., Navas-Molina, J. A., Kopylova, E., Morton, J. T., Zech Xu, Z., Kightley, E. P., Thompson, L. R., Hyde, E. R., Gonzalez, A., & Knight, R. (2017). Deblur rapidly resolves single-nucleotide community sequence patterns. mSystems, 2, e00191-16. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00191-16
    1. Anderson, M. J. (2001). A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Austral Ecology, 26(1), 32-46.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources