Assessment of bacterial community composition in response to uranium levels in sediment samples of sacred Cauvery River

Abstract

Global industrialization is a major cause of effluent discharge from industries up to alarming concentrations. Especially, uranium concentrations in water bodies are of great concern, as its radioactivity significantly affects the persistent diversity of microbiota. Recently, continuous application of pesticides in the agricultural lands and accumulation of quartz that enter the Cauvery River has significantly increased the concentration of uranium (U) and other heavy metals. To perceive the impact of uranium on bacterial diversity in Cauvery River, sediment samples collected from polluted (UP) site with 32.4 Bq/K of U concentration and control (UNP) site were scrutinized for bacterial diversity through metagenomic analysis of the V3 region of 16S rDNA by Illumina sequencing. Taxonomic assignment revealed that the unpolluted sample was dominated by Bacteroidetes (27.7 %), and Firmicutes (25.9 %), while sediment sample from the highly polluted site revealed abundance of Proteobacteria (47.5 %) followed by Bacteroidetes (22.4 %) and Firmicutes (14.6 %). Among Proteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria was the most prevalent group followed by alpha, delta, epsilon, and beta in the uranium-polluted sample. Rare and abundant species analysis revealed that species like Idiomarina loihiensis was abundant in the pollutant sample; however, it was rare (<0.1 %) in the sample from pristine environment. Similarly, the species distribution in both the samples varied, with the bacteria potentially active in redox activity and biosorption potential dominating in the polluted sample. Outcomes of the present study demonstrated the impact of uranium and metal accumulation on the bacterial communities and further confirmed the promising candidature of specific bacterial species as bioindicators of contamination.

Effects of uranium concentration on microbial community structure and functional potential

“…; Supporting Information Material S4). Such shifts in abundant and rare taxa have previously been observed in uranium enriched soils (Suriya et al ., ).…”

“…To date, a number of microbial surveys in uraniumenriched soils and sediments have been reported Rastogi et al, 2010;Dhal et al, 2011;Islam and Sar, 2011;Mondani et al, 2011;Suriya et al, 2016). These studies demonstrate that taxonomically diverse microbial communities survive in uranium-enriched environments.…”

Ecological risks of personal care ingredients for subtropical benthic communities

“…Therefore, Chloroflexi may contribute to the slow dissipation of TCS observed in the microcosms (Chapter 4). In accordance with our results, Suriya et al (2017) found that the relative abundance of Firmicutes was dramatically reduced in sediment samples collected from a contaminated area. It should be noted that TCS significantly reduced the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes at 8 µg/g dw, suggesting that Bacteroidetes were very sensitive to TCS.…”

Uranium Bio-Transformations: Chemical or Biological Processes?

“…Thus sulfate-reducing bacteria producing sulfide could facilitate uranium reduction by liberating adsorbed U(VI) and reducing the metal. When a [116]. From all of these examples, uranium reduction was observed abiotically, extracellularly, periplasmically, cytoplasmically and in mixed biotic-abiotic systems and the mechanisms examined reveal a diverse array of uranium reduction reactions from a diverse set of bacteria ( Table 2 & Table 3).…”