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Bacterial Community Structure of Sediments of the Bizerte Lagoon (Tunisia), a Southern Mediterranean Coastal Anthropized Lagoon

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

In order to estimate how pollution affects the bacterial community structure and composition of sediments, chemical and molecular approaches were combined to investigate eight stations around the Bizerte lagoon. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes revealed that each station was characterized by a specific bacterial community structure. The combination of this data with those of chemical analysis showed a correlation between the bacterial fingerprint and the pollutant content, principally with hydrocarbon pollution. The composition of the bacterial community of two contrasted stations related to the pollution revealed sequences affiliated to α, β, γ, δ, ε subclass of the Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Acidobacteria in both stations although in different extent. Gamma and delta subclass of the Proteobacteria were dominant and represent 70% of clones in the heavy-metal-contaminated station and 47% in the polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated. Nevertheless, most of the sequences found were unaffiliated to cultured bacteria. The adaptation of the bacterial community mainly to PAH compounds demonstrated here and the fact that these bacterial communities are mainly unknown suggest that the Bizerte lagoon is an interesting environment to understand the capacity of bacteria to cope with some pollutants.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Tunisian “Ministère de la Recherche Scientifique, de la Technologie et du Developpement des Competences” (MRSTDC). We acknowledge the financial support of the Conseil Régional d’Aquitaine and the Conseil Général des Pyrénées Atlantiques. Sequencing experiments presented in the present publication were performed at the Genotyping and Sequencing facility of Bordeaux (grants from the Aquitaine Regional Government Council no. 20030304002FA and 20040305003FA and from the European Union, FEDER no. 2003227).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe Environnement et Microbiologie-IPREM UMR 5254-IBEAS, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Avenue de l’Université, BP 1155, 64013, Pau cedex, France

    Olfa Ben Said, Marisol Goñi-Urriza & Robert Duran

  2. Laboratoire de Bactériologie–Pathologie, Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de la Mer INSTM, Salammbô, Tunisia

    Olfa Ben Said & Monia El Bour

  3. Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte, Laboratoire de Biosurveillance de l’Environnement, Zarzouna, Tunisia

    Olfa Ben Said & Patricia Aissa

Authors
  1. Olfa Ben Said
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  2. Marisol Goñi-Urriza
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  3. Monia El Bour
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  4. Patricia Aissa
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  5. Robert Duran
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert Duran.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Table 1 supplementary data

Polyaromatic hydrocarbon composition of the Bizerte lagoon sediments (DOC 161 kb)

Table 2 supplementary data

Heavy metal composition of the Bizerte lagoon sediments (DOC 144 kb)

Figure 1 supplementary data

Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) between sediment bacterial communities characterized by T-RFLP fingerprints and some physical–chemical parameters: suspended matter (SM), dissolved oxygen (O 2 ), nitrates (NO 3 ), phosphates (PO 4 ), Salinity, total PAHs, and total heavy metals. T-RFs (in base pairs) are represented (DOC 252 kb)

Figure 2 supplementary data

Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) between sediment bacterial communities characterized by T-RFLP fingerprints and individual PAH concentrations. All stations are represented in the insert figure. T-RFs (in base pairs) are represented. Station 1 is not considered for this analysis. N Naphthalene; ANY Acenaphtylene; ANA Acenaphtene; F Fluorine; P Phenanthrene; A Anthracene; FL Fluoranthene; PY Pyrene; C Chrysene; BA Benzo(a)anthracene; BBF+BkF Benzo[b+k]fluoranthene; BAP Benzo(a)pyrene; IN Indeno(1,2,3-)pyrene; DBA Dibenzo(a,h)anthracène; BPE Benzo(g,h,i)perylene (DOC 183 kb)

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Ben Said, O., Goñi-Urriza, M., El Bour, M. et al. Bacterial Community Structure of Sediments of the Bizerte Lagoon (Tunisia), a Southern Mediterranean Coastal Anthropized Lagoon. Microb Ecol 59, 445–456 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-009-9585-x

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