Consequences of crude oil contamination on the structure and function of autochthonous microbial community of a tropical agricultural soil
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Date
2019-05-22
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Springer : Environmental Sustainability
Abstract
Crude oil contamination of soil matrices is a persistent problem with deleterious consequences due to the recalcitrant, toxic
and mutagenic properties of its constituents. To decipher the effects of crude oil contamination on the microbial community
structure and function of an agricultural soil, field moist soil microcosms 2S (agricultural soil) and AB6 (agricultural soil
polluted with crude oil) were set up. Taxonomic profiling of the two microcosms using next generation shotgun sequencing
revealed massive decline in the number of recovered sequences from 3,267,616 (2S) to 250,241 (AB6). It also revealed the
dominance of the phyla Actinobacteria (46.86%), and Firmicutes (51.20%) in 2S and AB6 with preponderance of Conexibacter
(11.40%), and Singulisphaera (4.43%) in 2S, and Bacillus (38.52%), Sphingobium (10.51%), and Clostridium (7.06%)
in AB6, respectively. Gas chromatographic fingerprints of residual crude oil in AB6 revealed complete disappearance of
50% of the hydrocarbon fractions at the end of 42 days while the others were degraded to < 6% of their initial concentrations.
Functional annotation of the predicted ORFs in the two metagenomes revealed diverse metabolic features of the autochthonous
microbial community. It also revealed the exclusive detection of diverse genes in AB6 metagenome responsible for
degradation of various classes of hydrocarbons and the detoxification, transport and resistance to heavy metals. This study has
established the deleterious effects of crude oil contamination on the microbial community structure of a tropical agricultural
soil and revealed the adaptive features of the microbial community to various environmental stressors.
Description
Staff Publication
Keywords
Crude oil, Agricultural soil, Soil microcosm, Microbial community structure and function, Hydrocarbon degradation
Citation
Salam, L. B., & Idris, H. (2019). Consequences of crude oil contamination on the structure and function of autochthonous microbial community of a tropical agricultural soil. Environmental Sustainability. doi:10.1007/s42398-019-00058-0