Silver (Ag+) reduces denitrification and induces enrichment of novel nirK genotypes in soil.
The use of silver ions in industry to prevent microbial growth is increasing and silver is a new and an overlooked heavy-metal contaminant in sewage sludge-amended soil. The denitrifying community was the model used to assess the dose-dependent effects of silver ions on microorganisms overtime in soil microcosms. Silver caused a sigmoid dose-dependent reduction in denitrification activity, and no recovery was observed during 90 days. Dentrifiers with nirK, which encodes the copper nitrite reductase, were targeted to estimate abundance and community composition for some of the concentrations. The nirK copy number decreased by the highest addition (100 mg Ag kg(-1) soil), but the nirK diversity increased. Treatment-specific sequences not clustering with any deposited nirK sequences were found, indicating that silver induces enrichment of novel nirK denitrifiers.
Throbäck
Ingela Noredal
IN
Department of Microbiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Johansson
Mats
M
Rosenquist
Magnus
M
Pell
Mikael
M
Hansson
Mikael
M
Hallin
Sara
S
D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D005838:Genotype; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009566:Nitrates / Q000378:metabolism; D009572:Nitrite Reductases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009573:Nitrites / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012834:Silver / Q000633:toxicity*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
D009566:Nitrates; D009573:Nitrites; D012834:Silver; D009572:Nitrite Reductases; C052695:nitrite reductase, copper-containing