Distinction between Cr and other heavy-metal-resistant bacteria involved in C/N cycling in contaminated soils of copper producing sites

For typical copper producing provinces of Heilongjiang, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Shandong, Tibet, and Yunnan in China, 90 % of sampling sites were heavily polluted with multiple heavy metals. Soil heterogeneity and mutual interference of multimetals are obstacles to explore bacterial resistance pathways in contaminated field soils. Through analyses of contamination indices and bioindicators, combined with multivariate statistical models, the antioxidant enzyme activity, urease-induced precipitation of heavy metals, excretion of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were attributed to different types of heavy metals. Furthermore, through redundancy analysis combined with phylogenetic analysis of metal-resistant bacteria, we identified that Verrucomicrobia, Acidobacteria, and Planctomycetes secreted EPS-polysaccharides and EPS-proteins to detoxify Cr, a metal with lower concentrations and lower ecological risk as compared to other metals. The pathway was innovatively differentiated from the multimetal resistance pathways in urease and/or catalase-producing bacteria such as Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, BRC1, Bacteroidetes, Dadabacteria, Entotheonellaeota, Nitrospirae, and Gemmatimonadetes using field studies and high-throughput sequencing. Moreover, these metal-resistant bacteria were linked to C/N cycling processes of urea hydrolysis, nitrification, denitrification, EPS production, and calcite precipitation. It will provide new insight into soil bacterial resistance to multimetals in field studies.

Automated summary

Through studying typical copper-producing provinces in China, it was found that 90% of sampling sites were heavily polluted with multiple heavy metals, while soil heterogeneity and mutual interference of multimetals are obstacles in exploring bacterial resistance pathways in contaminated field soils. By analyzing contamination indices and bioindicators, along with multivariate statistical models, it was discovered that different types of heavy metals affect antioxidant enzyme activity, urease-induced precipitation of heavy metals, and excretion of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in the soil.