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New clusters of arsenite oxidase and unusual bacterial groups in enrichments from arsenic-contaminated soil

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Abstract

In the present study cultivation-dependent and molecular methods were applied in combination to investigate the arsenite-oxidizing communities in enrichment cultures from arsenic and lead smelter-impacted soils with respect to both 16S rRNA and arsenite oxidase gene diversity. Enrichments with arsenite as the only electron donor resulted in completely different communities than enrichments with yeast extract and the simultaneous presence of arsenite. The lithoautotrophic community appeared to be dominated by Ferrimicrobium-related Actinobacteria, unusual Acidobacteria, Myxobacteria, and α-Proteobacteria but the heterotrophic community comprised many Dokdonella-related γ-Proteobacteria. Gene sequences of clones encoding arsenite oxidase from the enrichment for lithoautotrophs belonged to three major clusters with sequences from non-cultivated microorganisms. So, primers used to detect arsenite oxidase genes could amplify the genes from many α-, β- and γ-Proteobacteria, but not from various strains of the other phyla present in the enrichment for lithotrophs. This was also observed for the isolates where arsenite oxidase genes from new proteobacterial isolates of the genera Burkholderia, Bosea, Alcaligenes, Bradyrhizobium and Methylobacterium could be amplified but the genes of the new Rhodococcus isolate S43 could not. The results indicate that the ability to oxidize arsenite is widespread in various unusual taxa, and molecular methods for their detection require further improvement.

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Acknowledgments

M. Sultana is supported by a PhD grant from DAAD. The authors would like to thank Professor Tim McDermott, Montana State University, Bozeman, USA, for providing the positive control for arsenite oxidase gene analysis for this study. Additional thanks are due to Dr. Mollee and Mr. Fritz from Saxonia Standortentwicklungs- und -Verwaltungs Gesellschaft, Freiberg, Germany, for their co-operation during sample collection and for providing chemical data of soil samples. We would like to thank Beate Erler and Janosch Gröning for their excellent technical assistance.

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Author notes

  1. Munawar Sultana

    Present address: Department of Microbiology, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh

  2. Jana Seifert

    Present address: Department of Proteomics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ, Permoser Str. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Ecological Centre, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Leipziger Straße 29, 09599, Freiberg, Germany

    Munawar Sultana, Susann Vogler, Jana Seifert & Michael Schlömann

  2. Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Kamrun Zargar & Chad Saltikov

  3. Institute for Analytical Chemistry, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Leipziger Straße 29, 09599, Freiberg, Germany

    Anne-Christine Schmidt

Authors
  1. Munawar Sultana
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Correspondence to Michael Schlömann.

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Communicated by Harald Huber.

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Sultana, M., Vogler, S., Zargar, K. et al. New clusters of arsenite oxidase and unusual bacterial groups in enrichments from arsenic-contaminated soil. Arch Microbiol 194, 623–635 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-011-0777-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-011-0777-7

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