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Title: Mercury and other heavy metals influence bacterial community structure in low-order Tennessee streams

Abstract

High concentrations of the heavy metals U(VI) and Hg(II) as well as inorganic compounds including nitrate have contaminated streams located in the Department of Energy reservation in Oak Ridge, TN. Of particular concern is methylmercury (MeHg) as it is more neurotoxic than Hg0. Deltaproteobacteria including sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) and iron reducing bacteria (IRB) have been generally identified as the primary methylators. In order to determine potential effects on microbial community composition by the contamination, surface stream sediments were collected 7 times during the year from 5 contaminated sites and 1 control site. Sixty samples were analyzed for bacterial community composition and geochemistry. Community characterization used GS 454 FLX pyrosequencing with 235 Mb of 16S rDNA sequence targeting the V4 region. Sorting and filtering of the raw reads resulted in 588,699 high quality sequences with lengths of >200 bp. The bacterial community was represented by 24 phyla and unclassified Bacteria including Proteobacteria (22.9-58.5%), Cyanobacteria (0.2-32.0%), Acidobacteria (1.6-30.6%), and Verrucomicrobia (3.4-31.0%). Redundancy analysis indicated there were no significant differences in the bacterial community structure between midchannel and near bank samples. However, significant correlations existed between the bacterial community and seasonal as well as geochemical variation. Further, several members of the communitymore » appear to be positively associated with MeHg including the Proteobacteria group that includes SRBs as well as Verrucomicrobia. This study is the first to indicate the influence of MeHg on an in-situ microbial community and suggests possible roles for each of these phyla in the Hg/MeHg cycle.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. ORNL
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1081649
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
The ISME Journal: Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 77; Journal Issue: 1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
mercury; mercury methylation; mercury SFA

Citation Formats

Vishnivetskaya, Tatiana A, Mosher, Jennifer J, Palumbo, Anthony Vito, Podar, Mircea, Brown, Steven D, Brooks, Scott C, Southworth, George R, Drake, Meghan M, and Brandt, Craig C. Mercury and other heavy metals influence bacterial community structure in low-order Tennessee streams. United States: N. p., 2011. Web.
Vishnivetskaya, Tatiana A, Mosher, Jennifer J, Palumbo, Anthony Vito, Podar, Mircea, Brown, Steven D, Brooks, Scott C, Southworth, George R, Drake, Meghan M, & Brandt, Craig C. Mercury and other heavy metals influence bacterial community structure in low-order Tennessee streams. United States.
Vishnivetskaya, Tatiana A, Mosher, Jennifer J, Palumbo, Anthony Vito, Podar, Mircea, Brown, Steven D, Brooks, Scott C, Southworth, George R, Drake, Meghan M, and Brandt, Craig C. 2011. "Mercury and other heavy metals influence bacterial community structure in low-order Tennessee streams". United States.
@article{osti_1081649,
title = {Mercury and other heavy metals influence bacterial community structure in low-order Tennessee streams},
author = {Vishnivetskaya, Tatiana A and Mosher, Jennifer J and Palumbo, Anthony Vito and Podar, Mircea and Brown, Steven D and Brooks, Scott C and Southworth, George R and Drake, Meghan M and Brandt, Craig C},
abstractNote = {High concentrations of the heavy metals U(VI) and Hg(II) as well as inorganic compounds including nitrate have contaminated streams located in the Department of Energy reservation in Oak Ridge, TN. Of particular concern is methylmercury (MeHg) as it is more neurotoxic than Hg0. Deltaproteobacteria including sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) and iron reducing bacteria (IRB) have been generally identified as the primary methylators. In order to determine potential effects on microbial community composition by the contamination, surface stream sediments were collected 7 times during the year from 5 contaminated sites and 1 control site. Sixty samples were analyzed for bacterial community composition and geochemistry. Community characterization used GS 454 FLX pyrosequencing with 235 Mb of 16S rDNA sequence targeting the V4 region. Sorting and filtering of the raw reads resulted in 588,699 high quality sequences with lengths of >200 bp. The bacterial community was represented by 24 phyla and unclassified Bacteria including Proteobacteria (22.9-58.5%), Cyanobacteria (0.2-32.0%), Acidobacteria (1.6-30.6%), and Verrucomicrobia (3.4-31.0%). Redundancy analysis indicated there were no significant differences in the bacterial community structure between midchannel and near bank samples. However, significant correlations existed between the bacterial community and seasonal as well as geochemical variation. Further, several members of the community appear to be positively associated with MeHg including the Proteobacteria group that includes SRBs as well as Verrucomicrobia. This study is the first to indicate the influence of MeHg on an in-situ microbial community and suggests possible roles for each of these phyla in the Hg/MeHg cycle.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1081649}, journal = {The ISME Journal: Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology},
number = 1,
volume = 77,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011},
month = {Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2011}
}