Responses of bacterial and archaeal communities to nitrate stimulation after oil pollution in mangrove sediment revealed by Illumina sequencing.

This study aimed to investigate microbial responses to nitrate stimulation in oiled mangrove mesocosm. Both supplementary oil and nitrate changed the water and sediment chemical properties contributing to the shift of microbial communities. Denitrifying genes nirS and nirK were increased several times by the interaction of oil spiking and nitrate addition. Bacterial chao1 was reduced by oil spiking and further by nitrate stimulation, whereas archaeal chao1 was only inhibited by oil pollution on early time. Sampling depth explained most of variation and significantly impacted bacterial and archaeal communities, while oil pollution only significantly impacted bacterial communities (p<0.05). Despite explaining less variation, nitrate addition coupled with oil spiking enhanced the growth of hydrocarbon degraders in mangrove. The findings demonstrate the impacts of environmental factors and their interactions in shaping microbial communities during nitrate stimulation. Our study suggests introducing genera Desulfotignum and Marinobacter into oiled mangrove for bioaugmentation.

Sphingomonas polyaromaticivorans sp. nov., a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading bacterium from an oil port water sample.

A bacterial strain (B2-7(T)) capable of degrading a wide range of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (2-4 rings) was isolated from a water sample taken from Botan Oil Port in Xiamen, China. The isolate was Gram-negative, short-rod-shaped, aerobic, non-motile and formed yellow-pigmented colonies on LB medium. Cells of strain B2-7(T) were catalase-positive and oxidase-negative. Optimal growth of strain B2-7(T) was observed at pH 7.0, at 26 °C and in 0.5 % NaCl. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain B2-7(T) grouped with members of the genus Sphingomonas and it showed 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 95.40 % to Sphingomonas yunnanensis YIM 003(T). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine and sphingoglycolipid. Q-10 and sym-homospermidine were the predominant ubiquinone and polyamine components, respectively. The major fatty acids were C(18:1)ω7c (67.2 %), C(14:0) 2-OH (10.0 %) and C(16:0) (9.6 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 61.8 mol%. Based on phenotypic properties, and phylogenetic and genomic data, strain B2-7(T) represents a novel species of the genus Sphingomonas within the class Alphaproteobacteria, for which the name Sphingomonas polyaromaticivorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is B2-7(T) ( = KCCM 42951(T) = JCM 16711(T)).

Distribution of Vibrio alginolyticus-like species in Shenzhen coastal waters, China

We investigated the distribution of vibrios in Shenzhen coastal waters in order to obtain valuable information for the aquaculture industry and a health warning system. Quantities of vibrios from surface waters ranged from 0 to 4.40×10(4) CFUs mL-1 in April (spring), while from 0 to 2.57×10³ CFUs mL-1 in September (autumn); the abundance of V. alginolyticus-like species from surface water ranged from 0 to 6.72×10³ CFUs mL-1 in April (spring) and from 0 to 1.28×10³ CFUs mL-1 in September (autumn); higher counts were observed in spring. The V. alginolyticus-like species was dominant in Shenzhen coastal waters, with the highest abundance in the clean region (stations YMK001 and GDN064) in April, suggesting that Vibrio spp. were naturally occurring bacteria in marine environments. The correlation between the abundance of vibrios (including V. alginolyticus-like species) and environmental factors varied in different regions and different seasons. There were no vibrios detected when the salinity was less than 11.15ë in the Zhujiang River estuary, which indicated that salinity played a key role in the distribution of vibrios and V. alginolyticus-like species.