This paper presents the characterization of the microbial community responsible for the in-situ bioremediation of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH). Microbial community structure and function was analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing methods for three sets of soil samples. The three samples were collected from a HCH-dumpsite (450 mg HCH/g soil) and comprised of a HCH/soil ratio of 0.45, 0.0007, and 0.00003, respectively. Certain bacterial; (Chromohalobacter, Marinimicrobium, Idiomarina, Salinosphaera, Halomonas, Sphingopyxis, Novosphingobium, Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas), archaeal; (Halobacterium, Haloarcula and Halorhabdus) and fungal (Fusarium) genera were found to be more abundant in the soil sample from the HCH-dumpsite. Consistent with the phylogenetic shift, the dumpsite also exhibited a relatively higher abundance of genes coding for chemotaxis/motility, chloroaromatic and HCH degradation (lin genes). Reassembly of a draft pangenome of Chromohalobacter salaxigenes sp. (~8X coverage) and 3 plasmids (pISP3, pISP4 and pLB1; 13X coverage) containing lin genes/clusters also provides an evidence for the horizontal transfer of HCH catabolism genes.
Details
Title
Comparative Metagenomic Analysis of Soil Microbial Communities across Three Hexachlorocyclohexane Contamination Levels
Author
Sangwan, Naseer : University of Delhi Lata, Pushp : University of Delhi Dwivedi, Vatsala : University of Delhi Singh, Amit : University of Delhi Niharika, Neha : University of Delhi Kaur, Jasvinder : University of Delhi Anand, Shailly : University of Delhi Malhotra, Jaya : University of Delhi Jindal, Swati : University of Delhi Nigam, Aeshna : University of Delhi Lal, Devi : University of Delhi Dua, Ankita : University of Delhi Saxena, Anjali : University of Delhi Garg, Nidhi : University of Delhi Verma, Mansi : University of Delhi Kaur, Jaspreet : University of Delhi Mukherjee, Udita : University of Delhi Gilbert, Jack A. : University of Chicago Dowd, Scot E. : Molecular Research LP Raman, Rajagopal : University of Delhi Khurana, Paramjit : University of Delhi Khurana, Jitendra P. : University of Delhi Lal, Rup : University of Delhi
Funding Information
University of Delhi, PURSE Program Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, BT/PR3301/BCE/8/875/2011 Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, AMAAS/2006–07/NBAIM/CIR United States Department of Energy, DE-AC02-06CH11357
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Notes
Due to the large number of authors, only the first 20 and the University of Chicago authors are included on the above author list. Please download the article for the complete list of authors.
