Microbial succession in response to pollutants in batch-enrichment culture

As a global problem, environmental pollution is an important factor to shape the microbial communities. The elucidation of the succession of microbial communities in response to pollutants is essential for developing bioremediation procedures. In the present study, ten batches of soil-enrichment subcultures were subjected to four treatments: phenanthrene, n-octadecane, phenanthrene + n-octadecane, or phenanthrene + n-octadecane + CdCl2. Forty pollutant-degrading consortia, corresponding to each batch of the four treatments were obtained. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that the diversity, richness and evenness of the consortia decreased throughout the subculturing procedure. The well-known hydrocarbon degraders Acinetobacter, Gordonia, Sphingobium, Sphingopyxis, and Castellaniella and several other genera, including Niabella and Naxibacter, were detected in the enriched consortia. The predominant microbes varied and the microbial community in the consortia gradually changed during the successive subculturing depending on the treatment, indicating that the pollutants influenced the microbial successions. Comparison of the networks in the treatments indicated that organic pollutants and CdCl2 affected the co-occurrence patterns in enriched consortia. In conclusion, single environmental factors, such as the addition of nutrients or selection pressure, can shape microbial communities and partially explain the extensive differences in microbial community structures among diverse environments.