Distribution of microbial taxa and genes degrading halogenated organic pollutants in the mangroves

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities have led to serious contamination of halogenated organic pollutants (HOPs), such as PCBs, PBDEs, and HBCDs, in the mangrove wetland. Biodegradation of HOPs is generally driven by environmental microorganisms harboring dehalogenase genes. However, little is known if HOPs can affect the distributions of HOPs-degrading bacteria and dehalogenase genes in the mangrove wetlands. Historical data suggested that HOPs contamination has been persistent and even deteriorated in the mangrove wetlands in China. We found that the organohalides-respiring bacteria Dehalococcoidia and reductive dehalogenase genes were more prevalent in the subsurface layer sediments (20–30 cm depth; 1.935–9.876% relative abundance; 71–286 contigs) than the surface layer (0–5 cm depth; 0.174-2.020% relative abundance; 7–130 contigs). While the genes of haloacid and haloalkane dehalogenases were more abundant in the surface layer (30–100 and 18–138 contigs) than the subsurface layer (22–56 and 50–101 contigs). The abundance of HOPs-degrading genes of reductive dehalogenase, haloacid dehalogenases, AtzA, AtzB, TrzA, TrzN, PcpB, were determined by GeoChip 5.0. Their total abundance ranged from 444.760 to 880.909. Their distributions were mainly associated with the contamination levels of HOPs and strength of anthropogenic activities around the mangrove wetlands. Therefore, the distribution of bacterial taxa and genes involved in HOPs degradation was related to the depth of sediments and affected by the selective stress from HOPs.