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Title: Impact of Organic Carbon Electron Donors on Microbial Community Development under Iron- and Sulfate-Reducing Conditions

Journal Article · · PLoS ONE
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) - Gangneung Institute, Gangneung (South Korea)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  3. Univ. of Akron, Akron, OH (United States)
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Although iron- and sulfate-reducing bacteria in subsurface environments have crucial roles in biogeochemical cycling of C, Fe, and S, how specific electron donors impact the compositional structure and activity of native iron- and/or sulfate-reducing communities is largely unknown. To understand this better, we created bicarbonate-buffered batch systems in duplicate with three different electron donors (acetate, lactate, or glucose) paired with ferrihydrite and sulfate as the electron acceptors and inoculated them with subsurface sediment as the microbial inoculum. Sulfate and ferrihydrite reduction occurred simultaneously and were faster with lactate than with acetate. 16S rRNA-based sequence analysis of the communities over time revealed that Desulfotomaculum was the major driver for sulfate reduction coupled with propionate oxidation in lactate-amended incubations. The reduction of sulfate resulted in sulfide production and subsequent abiotic reduction of ferrihydrite. In contrast, glucose promoted faster reduction of ferrihydrite, but without reduction of sulfate. Interestingly, the glucose-amended incubations led to two different biogeochemical trajectories among replicate bottles that resulted in distinct coloration (white and brown). The two outcomes in geochemical evolution might be due to the stochastic evolution of the microbial communities or subtle differences in the initial composition of the fermenting microbial community and its development via the use of different glucose fermentation pathways available within the community. Synchrotron-based x-ray analysis indicated that siderite and amorphous Fe(II) were formed in the replicate bottles with glucose, while ferrous sulfide and vivianite were formed with lactate or acetate. As a result, these data sets reveal that use of different C utilization pathways projects significant changes in microbial community composition over time that uniquely impact both the geochemistry and mineralogy of subsurface environments.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23), Subsurface Biogeochemical Research
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1399243
Journal Information:
PLoS ONE, Vol. 11, Issue 1; ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher:
Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 41 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Phosphorous in the environment: characteristics with distribution and effects, removal mechanisms, treatment technologies, and factors affecting recovery as minerals in natural and engineered systems journal May 2019
Microbial community and metabolic pathway succession driven by changed nutrient inputs in tailings: effects of different nutrients on tailing remediation journal March 2017
Viral and bacterial community responses to stimulated Fe(III)‐bioreduction during simulated subsurface bioremediation journal March 2019
Low-Abundance Members of the Firmicutes Facilitate Bioremediation of Soil Impacted by Highly Acidic Mine Drainage From the Malanjkhand Copper Project, India journal December 2018
Electron Donor Utilization and Secondary Mineral Formation during the Bioreduction of Lepidocrocite by Shewanella putrefaciens CN32 journal July 2019
Reduction of Sb(V) by coupled biotic-abiotic processes under sulfidogenic conditions journal February 2021
Impacts of leachates from livestock carcass burial and manure heap sites on groundwater geochemistry and microbial community structure journal August 2017
Parallelized, Aerobic, Single Carbon-Source Enrichments from Different Natural Environments Contain Divergent Microbial Communities journal November 2017

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
electron donor
iron reduction
microbial community development
sulfate reduction
sulfates
glucose
sulfides
glucose metabolism
sediment
fermentation
oxidation