title: Determining the metabolic footprints of hydrocarbon degradation using multivariate analysis.
abstract: The functional dynamics of microbial communities are largely responsible for the clean-up of hydrocarbons in the environment. However, knowledge of the distinguishing functional genes, known as the metabolic footprint, present in hydrocarbon-impacted sites is still scarcely understood. Here, we conducted several multivariate analyses to characterise the metabolic footprints present in a variety of hydrocarbon-impacted and non-impacted sediments. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) and canonical analysis of principal coordinates (CAP) showed a clear distinction between the two groups. A high relative abundance of genes associated with cofactors, virulence, phages and fatty acids were present in the non-impacted sediments, accounting for 45.7% of the overall dissimilarity. In the hydrocarbon-impacted sites, a high relative abundance of genes associated with iron acquisition and metabolism, dormancy and sporulation, motility, metabolism of aromatic compounds and cell signalling were observed, accounting for 22.3% of the overall dissimilarity. These results suggest a major shift in functionality has occurred with pathways essential to the degradation of hydrocarbons becoming overrepresented at the expense of other, less essential metabolisms.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Renee J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Thomas C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Jeffries
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Adetutu
authors.forename: Peter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Fairweather
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000378:metabolism*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D025341:Principal Component Analysis
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons