Suárez-Moo Pablo, Lamelas Araceli, Garcia-Bautista Itza, Barahona-Pérez Luis Felipe, Sandoval-Flores Gloria, Valdes-Lozano David, Toledano-Thompson Tanit, Polanco-Lugo Erik, Valdez-Ojeda Ruby
Red de Estudios Moleculares Avanzados, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.
Unidad de Energia Renovable, Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
PeerJ. 2020 Dec 8;8:e10339. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10339. eCollection 2020.
Coastal ecosystems are prone to hydrocarbon pollution due to human activities, and this issue has a tremendous impact on the environment, socioeconomic consequences, and represents a hazard to humans. Bioremediation relies on the ability of bacteria to metabolize hydrocarbons with the aim of cleaning up polluted sites.
The potential of naturally occurring microbial communities as oil degraders was investigated in Sisal and Progreso, two port locations in the southeast Gulf of Mexico, both with a low level of hydrocarbon pollution. To do so, we determined the diversity and composition of bacterial communities in the marine sediment during the dry and rainy seasons using 16S rRNA sequencing. Functional profile analysis (PICRUTSt2) was used to predict metabolic functions associated with hydrocarbon degradation.
We found a large bacterial taxonomic diversity, including some genera reported as hydrocarbon-degraders. Analyses of the alpha and beta diversity did not detect significant differences between sites or seasons, suggesting that location, season, and the contamination level detected here do not represent determining factors in the structure of the microbial communities. PICRUTSt2 predicted 10 metabolic functions associated with hydrocarbon degradation. Most bacterial genera with potential hydrocarbon bioremediation activity were generalists likely capable of degrading different hydrocarbon compounds. The bacterial composition and diversity reported here represent an initial attempt to characterize sites with low levels of contamination. This information is crucial for understanding the impact of eventual rises in hydrocarbon pollution.
由于人类活动，沿海生态系统容易受到碳氢化合物污染，这一问题对环境、社会经济产生巨大影响，并对人类构成危害。生物修复依赖于细菌代谢碳氢化合物的能力，旨在清理受污染场地。
在墨西哥湾东南部的两个港口地点锡萨尔和普罗格雷索调查了天然存在的微生物群落作为石油降解剂的潜力，这两个地点的碳氢化合物污染水平都较低。为此，我们在旱季和雨季使用16S rRNA测序确定了海洋沉积物中细菌群落的多样性和组成。功能谱分析（PICRUTSt2）用于预测与碳氢化合物降解相关的代谢功能。
我们发现了大量的细菌分类多样性，包括一些被报道为碳氢化合物降解菌的属。对α和β多样性的分析未发现不同地点或季节之间存在显著差异，这表明这里检测到的位置、季节和污染水平不是微生物群落结构的决定性因素。PICRUTSt2预测了10种与碳氢化合物降解相关的代谢功能。大多数具有潜在碳氢化合物生物修复活性的细菌属是通才，可能能够降解不同的碳氢化合物。这里报告的细菌组成和多样性是对低污染水平场地进行特征描述的初步尝试。这些信息对于理解碳氢化合物污染最终增加的影响至关重要。
