Ma Chenchen, Zhang Xiaoying, Wu Fasi, Liu Xiaobo
School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China.
Department of Conservation Research, National Research Center for Conservation of Ancient Wall Paintings and Earthen Sites, Dunhuang Academy, Dunhuang, China.
Front Microbiol. 2025 May 27;16:1600865. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1600865. eCollection 2025.
Outdoor stone heritage accounts for a large portion of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is an essential carrier of the ancient civilization of our society. Unfortunately, they usually suffer from serious biodeterioration by diverse microbial colonizers, especially when the environment is available. As microbial communities evolve with the environment, it is important to link the bio-deteriogens to biodeterioration processes accurately.
We used an integrative high-throughput sequencing and comparative metabolomic approach to unravel the biodeterioration of the Leizhou Stone Dog monuments.
The divergence and similarity of the composition of microbial biofilms colonizing the monuments indicated that photoautotrophic bacteria (e.g., , , and ) and nitrifying archaea (e.g., the family ) and/or bacteria (e.g., and ) are the keystone taxa governing the biodeterioration processes. Further, the correlation between the keystone taxa and physicochemical properties confirmed the consistency of the observations of the keystone metabolisms involved in the biodeterioration processes.
Our study highlights the necessity of a case-by-case diagnosis of the keystone taxa and metabolisms before any therapy, advancing the conservation science of cultural heritage.
户外石质遗产在联合国教科文组织世界遗产中占很大比例，是我们社会古代文明的重要载体。不幸的是，它们通常会受到各种微生物殖民者的严重生物劣化影响，尤其是在环境适宜时。由于微生物群落随环境而演变，准确地将生物劣化剂与生物劣化过程联系起来很重要。
我们采用综合高通量测序和比较代谢组学方法来揭示雷州石狗雕像的生物劣化情况。
在雕像上定殖的微生物生物膜组成的差异和相似性表明，光合自养细菌（如 、 和 ）、硝化古菌（如 科）和/或细菌（如 和 ）是控制生物劣化过程的关键类群。此外，关键类群与理化性质之间的相关性证实了生物劣化过程中关键代谢观察结果的一致性。
我们的研究强调了在进行任何修复之前对关键类群和代谢进行个案诊断的必要性，推动了文化遗产保护科学的发展。
