Abstract
Antimony (Sb) contamination released from mine tailings represents a global threat to natural ecosystems and human health. The geochemical conditions of Sb tailings, which are oligotrophic and replete in sulfur (S) and Sb, may promote the coupled metabolism of Sb and S. In this study, multiple lines of evidence indicate that a novel biogeochemical process, S oxidation coupled to Sb(V) reduction, is enzymatically mediated by Desulfurivibrio spp. The distribution of Desulfurivibrio covaried with S and Sb concentrations, showing a high relative abundance in Sb mine tailings but not in samples from surrounding sites (i.e., soils, paddies, and river sediments). Further, the metabolic potential to couple S oxidation to Sb(V) reduction, encoded by a non-canonical, oxidative sulfite reductase (dsr) and arsenate reductase (arrA) or antimonate reductase (anrA), respectively, was found to be common in Desulfurivibrio genomes retrieved from metal-contaminated sites in southern China. Elucidation of enzymatically-catalyzed S oxidation coupled to Sb(V) reduction expands the fundamental understanding of Sb biogeochemical cycling, which may be harnessed to improve remediation strategies for Sb mine tailings.
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Data availability
All the amplicon and metagenomic sequences were uploaded to the NCBI database under the bioproject number PRJNA678566. The Desulfurivibrio-MAG04 and the environmental MAGs are available in the NCBI database as biosample SAMN16879573-SAMN16879577. The geochemical data associated with the incubations are available in figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.15132546.v1).
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U21A2035, 32161143018, 41907212, U20A20109, and 42107285), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou (Grant No. 202002020072), GDAS' Project of Science and Technology Development (Grant Nos. 2020GDASYL-20200102018 and 2019GDASYL-0301002), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant Nos. 2021A1515011374 and 2021A1515011461), High-End Foreign Experts Project (Grant No. G20200130015), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (Grant Nos. 2019B121205006 and 2020B1212060048), and Guangdong Introducing Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talents (Grant No. 2017GC010570).
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XS conceived and designed the experiment with input from WS, JEK, MMH and MK; WS acquired the funding needed to conduct the project. LL, TK, BL, and PG performed the field sampling and laboratory analyses; XS, TK performed the data analysis; and XS led writing the manuscript with close consultation with JEK, FL, MMH, MK, MCYLV, YD, and WS.
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Sun, X., Kong, T., Li, F. et al. Desulfurivibrio spp. mediate sulfur-oxidation coupled to Sb(V) reduction, a novel biogeochemical process. ISME J 16, 1547–1556 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01201-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-022-01201-2
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