Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology Laboratory, Engineering School of Environmental & Natural Resources, Engineering Faculty, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia.
RG Microbial Ecology: Metabolism, Genomics & Evolution, Div. Ecogenomics & Holobionts, Microbiomas Foundation, LT11A, 250008, Chia, Colombia.
Microb Ecol. 2022 Aug;84(2):465-472. doi: 10.1007/s00248-021-01872-y. Epub 2021 Sep 30.
Acid mine drainage (AMD) is the major pollutant generated by the mining industry, and it is characterized by low pH and high concentration of metals and sulfate. The use of biochemical passive reactors (BPRs) is a promising strategy for its bioremediation. To date, there are various studies describing the taxonomical composition of BPR microbial communities, generally consisting of an assemblage of sulfate-reducing organisms inside Deltaproteobacteria, and a diverse set of anaerobic (ligno)cellulolytic bacteria; however, insights about its functional metagenomic content are still scarce. In previous studies, a laboratory-scale AMD bioremediation using biochemical passive reactors was designed and performed, tracking operation parameters, chemical composition, and changes, together with taxonomic composition of the microbiomes harbored in these systems. In order to reveal the main functional content of these communities, we used shotgun metagenomics analyses to explore genes of higher relative frequencies and their inferred functions during the AMD bioremediation from three BPRs representing the main microbiome compositions detected in the system. Remarkably, genes encoding for two-component regulatory systems and ABC transporters related to metal and inorganic ions, cellulose degradation enzymes, dicarboxylic acid production, and sulfite reduction complex were all detected at increased frequency. Our results evidenced that higher taxonomic diversity of the microbiome was arising together with a functional redundancy of the specific metabolic roles, indicating its co-selection and suggesting that its enrichment on BPRs may be implicated in the cumulative efficiency of these systems.
酸性矿山排水（AMD）是采矿业产生的主要污染物，其特点是 pH 值低、金属和硫酸盐浓度高。生化被动反应器（BPR）的使用是其生物修复的一种有前途的策略。迄今为止，有各种研究描述了 BPR 微生物群落的分类组成，通常由硫酸盐还原菌属内的 Delta 变形菌门的集合体和一组多样的厌氧（木质）纤维素分解菌组成；然而，关于其功能宏基因组组成的见解仍然很少。在之前的研究中，设计并进行了实验室规模的 AMD 生物修复，跟踪操作参数、化学成分和变化，以及这些系统中栖息的微生物组的分类组成。为了揭示这些群落的主要功能内容，我们使用鸟枪法宏基因组学分析来探索在 AMD 生物修复过程中相对频率较高的基因及其推断功能，这些基因来自三个 BPR，代表了系统中检测到的主要微生物组组成。值得注意的是，编码双组分调节系统和与金属和无机离子、纤维素降解酶、二羧酸产生和亚硫酸盐还原复合物相关的 ABC 转运蛋白的基因的相对频率都增加了。我们的结果表明，微生物组的更高分类多样性伴随着特定代谢作用的功能冗余，这表明了它们的共同选择，并暗示了它们在 BPR 上的富集可能与这些系统的累积效率有关。
