Survey of sulfur-oxidizing bacterial community in the Pearl River water using soxB, sqr, and dsrA as molecular biomarkers

In this study, we surveyed the abundance and diversity of three sulfur oxidation genes (sqr, soxB, and dsrA) using quantitative assays and Miseq high-throughput sequencing. The quantitative assays revealed that soxB is more abundant than sqr and dsrA and is the main contributor to sulfur oxidation. In the diversity analysis, the SOB community mainly comprised the classes Nitrospira, Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria. The genera Gallionella, Hydrogenophaga, Limnohabitans, Methylomonas, Nitrospira, Rhodoferax, and Sulfuritalea were abundant in the communities for sqr; Dechloromonas, Limnohabitans, Paracoccus, Sulfuritalea, Sulfitobacter, and Thiobacillus were abundant in communities for soxB; Sulfuritalea, Sulfurisoma, and Thiobacillus were abundant in communities for dsrA. This study presented a high diversity of SOB species and functional sulfur-oxidizing genes in Pearl River via high-throughput sequencing, suggesting that the aquatic ecosystem has great potential to scavenge the sulfur pollutants by itself.