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Fungal community diversity of heavy metal contaminated soils revealed by metagenomics

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Abstract

The inappropriate disposal of toxic compounds generated by industrial activity has been impacting the environment considerably. Microbial communities inhabiting contaminated sites may represent interesting ecological alternatives for the decontamination of environments. The present work aimed to investigate the fungal diversity and its functionality contained in stream sediments with industrial waste contaminated with heavy metals by using metagenomic approach. A total of 12 fungal orders were retrieved from datasets and, at phylum level, Ascomycota was the most abundant, followed by Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota and Blastocladiomycota. Higher abundance of sequences was encountered within the less contaminated site, while the lower abundance was found in the sample with the higher contamination with lead. Gene sequences related to DNA repair and heavy metals biosorption processes were found in the four samples analyzed. The genera Aspergillus and Chaetomium, and Saccharomycetales order were highly present within all samples, showing their potential to be used for bioremediation studies. The present work demonstrated the importance of using the metagenomic approach to understand the dynamics and the possible metabolic pathways associated with fungal communities related to environmental samples containing heavy metals, as well as evidenced the importance of improving culturomics techniques for isolating strains with potential application in bioremediation processes of environments contaminated with heavy metals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank FUNCAP (Fundação Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Process number DCR-0024-01438.01.00/12) for their financial support. L. C. L. Verde was supported by the FUNCAP. We also thank to the CEGENBIO (Central de Genômica e Bioinformática do NPDM/UFC), by the genomic analysis.

Funding

Funcap - CEARENSE FOUNDATION FOR SUPPORT TO SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT (DCR-0024-01438.01.00/12).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UNILA-Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana, Av. Tarquínio Joslin Dos Santos, 1000–Jd Universitário, Foz do Iguaçu, PR, 85870-650, Brazil

    Michel Rodrigo Zambrano Passarini & Júlia Ronzella Ottoni

  2. Department of Biological Chemistry, Regional University of Cariri, Crato, CE, Brazil

    Paulo Emílio dos Santos Costa, Henrique Douglas Melo Coutinho & Leandro Costa Lima Verde

  3. Microbial Ecology and Biotechnology Lab, Federal University of Ceara, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

    Denise Cavalvante Hissa & Vânia Maria Maciel Melo

  4. Department of Genetics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Raul Maia Falcão & Valdir Queiroz Balbino

  5. Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Cariri-UFCA, Juazeiro do Norte, CE, Brazil

    Luiz Alberto Ribeiro Mendonça & Maria Gorethe de Sousa Lima

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  1. Michel Rodrigo Zambrano Passarini
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  2. Júlia Ronzella Ottoni
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Correspondence to Michel Rodrigo Zambrano Passarini.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Supp 2 PCA plot illustrating the influence of variables on the alpha-diversity of the different sampled points (JPG 32 KB)

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Passarini, M.R.Z., Ottoni, J.R., Costa, P.E.d. et al. Fungal community diversity of heavy metal contaminated soils revealed by metagenomics. Arch Microbiol 204, 255 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-022-02860-7

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