title: Microbial community composition and functions are resilient to metal pollution along two forest soil gradients.
abstract: Despite the global importance of forests, it is virtually unknown how their soil microbial communities adapt at the phylogenetic and functional level to long-term metal pollution. Studying 12 sites located along two distinct gradients of metal pollution in Southern Poland revealed that functional potential and diversity (assessed using GeoChip 4.2) were highly similar across the gradients despite drastically diverging metal contamination levels. Metal pollution level did, however, significantly impact bacterial community structure (as shown by MiSeq Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA genes), but not bacterial taxon richness and community composition. Metal pollution caused changes in the relative abundance of specific bacterial taxa, including Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes and Proteobacteria. Also, a group of metal-resistance genes showed significant correlations with metal concentrations in soil. Our study showed that microbial communities are resilient to metal pollution; despite differences in community structure, no clear impact of metal pollution levels on overall functional diversity was observed. While screens of phylogenetic marker genes, such as 16S rRNA genes, provide only limited insight into resilience mechanisms, analysis of specific functional genes, e.g. involved in metal resistance, appears to be a more promising strategy.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Krakow, Poland Hamed.Azarbad@uj.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Hamed
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Azarbad
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niklińska
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Ryszard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laskowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nico M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: van Straalen
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cornelis A M
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: van Gestel
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Departments of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73072, USA Earth Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jizhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Departments of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73072, USA.
authors.forename: Zhili
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics and Departments of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73072, USA.
authors.forename: Chongqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Physiology, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wilfred F M
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Röling
mesh_terms: D061271:Acidobacteria; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D065928:Forests; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D008670:Metals / Q000633:toxicity*; D059013:Microbial Consortia / Q000187:drug effects*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011044:Poland; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012987:Soil; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D008670:Metals; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012987:Soil
keywords: GeoChip; Illumina sequencing; metal pollution; soil microbial communities