Metagenomics analysis identifies nitrogen metabolic pathway in bioremediation of diesel contaminated soil

Nitrogen amendment is known to effectively enhance the bioremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil, but the nitrogen metabolism in this process is not well understood. To unravel the nitrogen metabolic pathway(s) of diesel contaminated soil, six types of nitrogen sources were added to the diesel contaminated soil. Changes in microbial community and soil enzyme genes were investigated by metagenomics analysis and chemical analysis through a 30-day incubation study. The results showed that ammonium based nitrogen sources significantly accelerated the degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) (79-81%) compared to the control treatment (38%) and other non-ammonium based nitrogen amendments (43-57%). Different types of nitrogen sources could dramatically change the microbial community structure and soil enzyme gene abundance. Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were identified as the two dominant phyla in the remediation of diesel contaminated soil. Metagenomics analysis revealed that the preferred metabolic pathway of nitrogen was from ammonium to glutamate via glutamine, and the enzymes governing this transformation were glutamine synthetase and glutamate synthetase; while in nitrate based amendment, the conversion from nitrite to ammonium was restrained by the low abundance of nitrite reductase enzyme and therefore retarded the TPH degradation rate. It is concluded that during the process of nitrogen enhanced bioremediation, the most efficient nitrogen cycling direction was from ammonium to glutamine, then to glutamate, and finally joined with carbon metabolism after transforming to 2-oxoglutarate.