Abstract
Agricultural soils are becoming contaminated with synthetic chemicals like polyaromatic compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), phenols, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides due to excessive dependency of crop production systems on the chemical inputs. Microbial degradation of organic pollutants in the agricultural soils is a continuous process due to the metabolic multifunctionalities and enzymatic capabilities of the soil associated communities. The plant rhizosphere with its complex microbial inhabitants and their multiple functions, is amongst the most live and dynamic component of agricultural soils. We analyzed the metatranscriptome data of 20 wheat rhizosphere samples to decipher the taxonomic microbial communities and their multifunctionalities linked with the degradation of organic soil contaminants. The analysis revealed a total of 21 different metabolic pathways for the degradation of aromatic compounds and 06 for the xenobiotics degradation. Taxonomic annotation of wheat rhizosphere revealed bacteria, especially the Proteobacteria, actinobacteria, firmicutes, bacteroidetes, and cyanobacteria, which are shown to be linked with the degradation of aromatic compounds as the dominant communities. Abundance of the transcripts related to the degradation of aromatic amin compounds, carbazoles, benzoates, naphthalene, ketoadipate pathway, phenols, biphenyls and xenobiotics indicated abundant degradation capabilities in the soils. The results highlighted a potentially dominant role of crop rhizosphere associated microbial communities in the remediation of contaminant aromatic compounds.
Highlights
Toxic organic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlorophenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), petroleum hydrocarbons, dyes and pesticides are becoming major contaminants of agricultural soils (Diez, 2010; Valentìn et al, 2013)
The metatranscriptome analysis reports such widely abundant microbial communities, which are known for their role of degradation and remediation of organic pollutants and prominently abundant transcripts, which were directly related to the enzymes that have potential to degrade various organic chemicals in 20 wheat rhizosphere metatranscriptomes
Apart from the identification of transcripts/enzymes in the pathways involved in the metabolism of aromatic compounds in wheat rhizosphere metatranscriptomes, we have explored the transcripts and pathways linked with the xenobiotic degradation and metabolism
Summary
Toxic organic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlorophenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), petroleum hydrocarbons, dyes and pesticides are becoming major contaminants of agricultural soils (Diez, 2010; Valentìn et al, 2013). Crop roots and the rhizosphere are directly under the influence of hardly biodegradable organic pollutants and contaminants, especially the PAHs and pesticides under any contaminated soil environment (Chen et al, 2013; Lawal, 2017). This may create serious and threatening concerns for the healthy soil and crop environment and the biodegradation and/or rhizoremediation of the chemical wastes and organic pollutants are attracting central focus worldwide (Chikere, 2013; Lu et al, 2014; Kronenberg et al, 2017). Microbial (bacterial and fungal) degradation of pesticide, xenobiotic compounds and organic chemicals has been widely reported (McGuinness and Dowling, 2009; Porto et al, 2011) since long, the direct, indirect or intermediary linking of the metabolic pathways connected with the removal of contaminants is less understood (Ladino-Orjuela et al, 2016)
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