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Bacterial degradation of Aroclor 1242 in the mycorrhizosphere soils of zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.) inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

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Abstract

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.), inoculated with the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) species Acaulospora laevis, Glomus caledonium, and Glomus mosseae, on the soil bacterial community responsible for Aroclor 1242 dissipation. The dissipation rates of Aroclor 1242 and soil bacteria abundance were much higher with the A. laevis and G. mosseae treatments compared to the non-mycorrhizal control. The biphenyl dioxygenase (bphA) and Rhodococcus-like 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl dioxygenase (bphC) genes were more abundant in AM inoculated soils, suggesting that the bphA and Rhodococcus-like bphC pathways play an important role in Aroclor 1242 dissipation in the mycorrhizosphere. The soil bacterial communities were dominated by classes Betaproteobacteria and Actinobacteria, while the relative proportion of Actinobacteria was significantly (F = 2.288, P < 0.05) correlated with the PCB congener profile in bulk soil. Our results showed that AM fungi could enhance PCB dissipation by stimulating bph gene abundance and the growth of specific bacterial groups.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41101243, 41090284, and 41271256), program of Shanghai Cooperative Centre for WEEE Recycling (ZF1224-09), and Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture (Grant No. 212000009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil and Water Resources and Environmental Science, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Subtropical Soil and Plant Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Hua Qin, Philip C. Brookes & Jianming Xu

  2. School of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang A&F University, Lin’an, 311300, China

    Hua Qin

  3. Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Youzhi Feng

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  1. Hua Qin
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  2. Philip C. Brookes
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  3. Jianming Xu
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  4. Youzhi Feng
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Correspondence to Jianming Xu.

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Responsible editor: Robert Duran

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Qin, H., Brookes, P.C., Xu, J. et al. Bacterial degradation of Aroclor 1242 in the mycorrhizosphere soils of zucchini (Cucurbita pepo L.) inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 12790–12799 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3231-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3231-y

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