Restoration of taxonomic and functional genes after bioaugmentation of petroleum contaminated soil

Abstract

Soil microbial ecosystems are responsive to environmental changes that underpin the biological functions of the soil. The present study was conducted to profile variations in the microbial ecological system of remediated soil (R) and petroleum contaminated soil (P) based on comparisons with soil that had not been contaminated (N), using a cloning library of taxonomic genes (16S rRNA gene for bacteria and 18S rRNA gene for eukaryotes) and functional genes (nifH, amoA and narG). The results showed that N and R had a similar distribution in both the taxonomic genes and functional genes for bacteria and eukaryotes, which were dominated by Proteobacteria and Arthropoda, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on the nifH gene showed that the sequences from the three soils were clustered into six taxonomic groups, Actinobacteridae, and Alpha-, Beta-, Gamma- and Delta-proteobacteria, as well as an unclassified group. Evaluation of the amoA gene revealed that all sequences derived from the three samples belonged to Betaproteobacteria. The R and N soil had similar Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H') values, both of which were significantly higher than that of the P soil. The most abundant bacterial phylotype identified in the N and R soils were the same and were related to an uncultured bacterial clone (GAN-SB17, FN423475). None of the narG genes were found in the P soil. Similar results in terms of distribution, composition and the related index were obtained for nifH and amoA. These parameters may comprise a biological ecology index that may be applied to aid the design, implementation and evaluation of soil bioremediation.