Diversity of Microbial Community in Shihongtan Sandstone-Type Uranium Deposits, Xinjiang, China

Investigation of microbial communities in uranium deposits will be beneficial for understanding the indigenous microbial impacts on uranium-mineralization as well as developing appropriate remediation and long-term management strategies of uranium-contaminated repositories. In this study, microbial communities of Shihongtan uranium deposits, Xinjiang, China, were investigated using molecular biological techniques and traditional cultivation. PCR-DGGE and PCR-RFLP analyses suggested that there were a number of bacteria and archaea in Shihongtan uranium deposits. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the bacterial communities were affiliated with Firmicutes, gamma-Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria, while most of archaea showed close evolutionary relationship with Halobacteriaceae. Furthermore, a total of 27 bacterial strains were isolated from 8 core samples, and these strains were most closely related to Clostridium sp., Exiguobacterium sp., Enterobacter sp., Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella sp., Aeromonas sp, Citrobacter sp., Tessaracoccus sp. and Jonesia sp., respectively. No archaea were cultured. We hope the current investigation of microbial communities in uranium deposits combining culture-dependent and independent approaches, could not only help in understanding the microbial impacts on uranium-mineralization, but also help in identifying microbes that participate in uranium biomineralization for further study.