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Meta-omics Provides Insights into the Impact of Hydrocarbon Contamination on Microbial Mat Functioning

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Photosynthetic microbial mats are stable, self-supported communities. Due to their coastal localization, these mats are frequently exposed to hydrocarbon contamination and are able to grow on it. To decipher how this contamination disturbs the functioning of microbial mats, we compared two mats: a contaminated mat exposed to chronic petroleum contamination and a reference mat. The taxonomic and metabolic structures of the mats in spring and fall were determined using metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches. Extremely high contamination disturbed the seasonal variations of the mat. ABC transporters, two-component systems, and type IV secretion system-related genes were overabundant in the contaminated mats. Xenobiotic degradation metabolism was minor in the metagenomes of both mats, and only the expression of genes involved in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degradation was higher in the contaminated mat. Interestingly, the expression rates of genes involved in hydrocarbon activation decreased during the 1-year study period, concomitant with the decrease in easily degradable hydrocarbons, suggesting a transient effect of hydrocarbon contamination. Alteromonadales and Oceanospirillales hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria appeared to be key in hydrocarbon remediation in the contaminated mat. Overall, the contaminated microbial mat was able to cope with hydrocarbon contamination and displayed an adaptive functioning that modified seasonal behaviour.

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Acknowledgments

The authors received support with linguistic proofreading from a professional proofreading service.

Funding

This work was supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR FUNHYMAT ANR11 BSV7 014 01).

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Author notes

  1. Johanne Aubé

    Present address: Laboratoire de Microbiologie des Environnements Extrêmes, UMR6197, IFREMER, CNRS, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Plouzané, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Microbiology, Universite de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, E2S UPPA, CNRS, IPREM, Pau, France

    Johanne Aubé, Pavel Senin, Rémy Guyoneaud & Marisol Goñi-Urriza

  2. Plateforme Bioinformatique Genotoul, UR875 Biométrie et Intelligence Artificielle, INRA, Castanet-Tolosan, France

    Pavel Senin & Christophe Klopp

  3. Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), Aix Marseille University, Université de Toulon, CNRS/INSU/IRD, UM 110, Marseille, France

    Patricia Bonin

  4. UMR 9190 MARBEC IRD-Ifremer-CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, Montpellier, France

    Olivier Pringault

  5. GeT-PlaGe, Genotoul, INRA Auzeville, Castanet-Tolosan, France

    Céline Jeziorski & Olivier Bouchez

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  1. Johanne Aubé
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Correspondence to Marisol Goñi-Urriza.

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Aubé, J., Senin, P., Bonin, P. et al. Meta-omics Provides Insights into the Impact of Hydrocarbon Contamination on Microbial Mat Functioning. Microb Ecol 80, 286–295 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-020-01493-x

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