River sediment microbial community composition and function impacted by thallium spill

Thallium (Tl) is widely used in various industries, which increases the risk of leakage into the environment. Since Tl is highly toxic, it can do a great harm to human health and ecosystem. In order to explore the response of freshwater sed-iment microorganisms to sudden Tl spill, metagenomic technique was used to elucidate the changes of microbial com-munity composition and functional genes in river sediments. Tl pollution could have profound impacts on microbial community composition and function. Proteobacteria remained the dominance in contaminated szediments, indicating that it had a strong resistance to Tl contamination, and Cyanobacteria also showed a certain resistance. Tl pollution also had a certain screening effect on resistance genes and affected the abundance of resistance genes. Metal resistance genes (MRGs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were enriched at the site near the spill site, where Tl concentra-tion was relatively low among polluted sites. When Tl concentration was higher, the screening effect was not obvious and the resistance genes even became lower. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between MRGs and ARGs. In addition, co-occurrence network analysis showed that Sphingopyxis had the most links with resistance genes, indi-cating that it was the biggest potential host of resistance genes. This study provided new insight towards the shifts in the composition and function of microbial communities after sudden serious Tl contamination.

Automated summary

The study indicates that thallium contamination has significant impacts on the composition and function of microbial communities in river sediments. Proteobacteria dominate in contaminated sediments, showing a strong resistance to thallium. Cyanobacteria also exhibit certain resistance. Thallium pollution affects the screening effect and abundance of resistance genes, with metal resistance genes and antibiotic resistance genes being enriched at low thallium concentration sites near spill sites.