Dynamics of metal(loid) resistance genes driven by succession of bacterial community during manure composting

Metal(loid) resistance genes (MRGs) play important roles in conferring resistance to metal(loid)s in bacterial communities. How MRGs respond to bacterial succession during manure composting remains largely unknown. Metagenomics was used in the present study to investigate the compositional changes of MRGs, their candidate hosts and association with integrons during thermophilic composting of chicken manures. MRGs conferring resistance to 20 metal(loid)s were detected, and their diversity and abundance (normalized to the abundance of 16S rRNA genes) were significantly reduced during composting. MRGs associated with integron were exclusively observed in proteobacterial species. Class 1 integron likely played an important role in maintaining mercury-resistance mer operon genes in composts. Escherichia coli harbored the most abundant MRGs in the original composting material, whereas species of Actinobacteria and Bacilli became more important in carrying MRGs during the late phases. There were significant linear relationships between the relative abundance of some specific bacterial species (E. coli, Actinobacteria species and Enterococcus faecium) and the abundance of MRGs they potentially harbored. The succession of these bacteria contributed to an overall linear regression between the relative abundance of all predicted candidate hosts and the abundance of total MRGs. Our results suggest that the succession of bacterial community was the main driver of MRG dynamics during thermophilic composting.