Recently it was demonstrated that mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) larvae consume and biodegrade polystyrene. Thus, in this study a breeding investigation with various types of polystyrene was performed to follow the changes in the gut microbiome diversity. Polystyrene used for packaging purposes (PSp) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) were perceived as more favorable and attacked more frequently by mealworms compared to raw polystyrene (PS) and material commercially available for parcels (PSp). Although our studies showed that larvae could bite and chew selected materials, they are not able to degrade and use them for consumption purposes. In a next-generation sequencing experiment, among all samples, seven classes, Gammaproteobacteria, Bacilli, Clostridia, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Flavobacteria, were indicated as the most abundant, whereas the predominant genera were Enterobacter, Lactococcus and Enterococcus. Additionally, we isolated three bacteria strains able to use diverse types of bioplastic as a sole carbon source. The strains with biodegradable activity against bioplastic were identified as species of the genera Klebsiella, Pseudomonas and Serratia. The presence of a bacterial strain able to degrade bioplastic may suggest a potential niche for further investigations.

Depending on their concentrations, sizes, and types, particulate matters of biological origins (bioPM) significantly affect human health. However, for different air environments, they are not well characterized and can vary considerably. As an example, we investigated the bioPM differences at an urban (Beijing) site and a rural (Wangdu) site in the North China Plain (NCP) using an online monitoring instrument, an ultraviolet aerodynamic particle sizer (UV-APS), the limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay, and a high-throughput sequencing method. Generally, lower concentrations of viable bioPM (hourly mean: 1.3 × 10³ ± 1.6 × 10³ m⁻³) and endotoxin (0.66 ± 0.16 EU/m³) in Beijing were observed compared to viable bioPM (0.79 × 10⁵ ± 1.4 × 10⁵ m⁻³) and endotoxin (15.1 ± 23.96 EU/m³) at the Wangdu site. The percentage of viable bioPM number concentration in the total PM was 3.1% in Beijing and 6.4% in Wangdu. Approximately 80% of viable bioPM was found to be in the range from 1 to 2.5 μm. Nevertheless, the size distribution patterns for viable bioPM at the Beijing and Wangdu sites differed and were affected by PM pollution, leading to distinct lung deposition profiles. Moreover, the distinct diurnal variations in viable bioPM on clean days were dimmed by the PM pollution at both sites. Distinct bacterial community structures were found in the air from the Beijing and Wangdu sites. The bacterial community in urban Beijing was dominated by genus Lactococcus (49.5%) and Pseudomonas (15.1%), while the rural Wangdu site was dominated by Enterococcus (65%) and Paenibacillus (10%). Human-derived genera, including Myroides, Streptococcus, Propionibacterium, Dietzia, Helcococcus, and Facklamia, were higher in Beijing, suggesting bacterial emission from humans in the urban air environment. Our results show that different air harbors different biological species, and people residing in different environments thus could have very different biological particle exposure.

To evaluate the seasonal distribution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and explore the reason for their patterns in different seasons and different systems, two wastewater treatment systems were selected and analyzed using high-throughput qPCR. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) was used to discover the differential ARGs (biomarkers) and estimate the biomarkers’ effect size. We found that the total absolute abundances of ARGs in inflows and excess sludge samples had no obvious seasonal fluctuations, while those in winter outflow samples decreased in comparison with the inflow samples. Eleven differentially abundant ARGs (biomarker genes, BmGs) (aadA5-02, aac-6-II, cmlA1-01, cmlA1-02, blaOXA10-02, aadA-02, tetX, aadA1, ereA, qacEΔ1-01, and blaTEM) in summer samples and 10 BmGs (tet-32, tetA-02, aacC2, vanC-03, aac-6-I1, tetE, ermB, mefA, tnpA - 07, and sul2) in winter samples were validated. According to 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the relative abundance of bacteria at the phylum level exhibited significant seasonal changes in outflow water (OW), and biomarker bacteria (BmB) were discovered at the family (or genus) level. Synechococcus and vadinCA02 are BmB in summer, and Trichococcus, Lactococcus, Pelosinus, Janthinobacterium, Nitrosomonadaceae and Sterolibacterium are BmB in winter. In addition, BmB have good correlations with BmGs in the same season, which indicates that bacterial community changes drive different distributions of ARGs during seasonal changes and that LEfSe is an acute and effective method for finding significantly different ARGs and bacteria between two or more classes.In conclusion, this study demonstrated the seasonal changes of BmGs and BmB at two wastewater treatment systems.

Recent studies have demonstrated the ability of mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) for plastic degradation. This study is focused on changes in microbiome structure depending on diets. Microbial community obtained from oat and cellulose diet formed similar group, two kinds of polyethylene formed another group, while polystyrene diet showed the highest dissimilarity. The highest relative abundance of bacteria colonizing gut was in PE-oxodegradable feeding, nevertheless all applied diets were higher in comparison to oat. Dominant phyla consisted of Proteobacteria, Bacteroides, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, however after PS feeding frequency in Planctomycetes and Nitrospirae increased. The unique bacteria characteristic for cellulose diet belonged to Selenomonas, while Pantoea were characteristic for both polyethylene diets, Lactococcus and Elizabethkingia were unique for each plastic diet, and potential diazotropic bacteria were characteristic for polystyrene diet (Agrobacterium, Nitrosomonas, Nitrospira).Enzymatic similarity between oatmeal and cellulose diets, was shown. All three plastics diet resulted in different activity in both, digestive tract and bacteria. The enzymes with the highest activity were included phosphatases, esterases, leucine arylamidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucuronidase, α-glucosidase, β-glucosidase, chitinase, α-mannosidase and α-fucosidase. The activity of digestive tract was stronger than cultured gut bacteria. In addition to known polyethylene degradation methods, larvae may degrade polyethylene with esterase, cellulose and oatmeal waste activity is related with the activity of sugar-degrading enzymes, degradation of polystyrene with anaerobic processes and diazotrophs.

Agronomic selenium (Se) biofortification of grain crops is considered the best method for increasing human Se intake, which may help people alleviate Se-deficiency. To investigate the efficiency of agronomic Se biofortification of oat, four Se fertilizer application treatments were tested: topsoil (T), foliar (S), the combination of T and S (TS), and control without Se application (CK). Compared with CK, TS significantly increased the 1000-grain weight, grain yield, Se contents in all parts of oats, contents of soil available N, K, and organic matter by 18%, 8.70%, 19.7–60.2%, 6.00%, 8.02%, and 17.95%, respectively. Leaves, roots, and ears had the highest conversion rate of exogenous Se in S (644.63%), T (416.00%), and TS (273.20%), respectively. TS also increased the activities of soil urease, alkaline phosphatase, and sucrose and the diversity of soil bacterial communities. TS and T increased the relative abundance of bacteria involved in the decomposition of organic matter, such as Actinobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Chloroflexi, and Bacteroidetes positively correlated with soil nutrients and enzyme activities, and reduced Proteobacteria and Firmicutes negatively correlated with them, Granulicella, Bacillus, Raoultella, Lactococcus, Klebsiella, and Pseudomonas. Furthermore, TS significantly increased the relative abundance of Planctomycetes, Chlorobi, Nitrospinae, Nitrospirae, Aciditeromonas, Gemmatimonas, Geobacter, and Thiobacter. T significantly increased the abundance of Lysobacter, Holophaga, Candidatus-Koribacter, Povalibacter, and Pyrinomonas. S did not significantly change the bacterial communities. Thus, a combined foliar and soil Se fertilizer proved conducive for achieving higher yield, grain Se content, and improving Se transport, the diversity of rhizosphere bacterial community, and bacterial functions in oats.

We investigated the treatment efficiency of micro-polluted NO₃⁻-dominated river water with low C/N ratio by five parallel pilot-scale IVCWs with different plant and substrate collocation. When the mean concentration was 2.24 and 0.193 mg L⁻¹ in influent, IVCWs achieved an average (mass) removal rate of (0.09 g m⁻² day⁻¹) 46.8% and (0.77 g m⁻² day⁻¹) 62.3% for TN and TP, respectively, during 1 year of operation. Water quality was significantly improved from grade V to meet the criterion of grade IV of surface water. Through the comparison of removal rate by different IVCWs, we found that lack of carbon sources in influent limited the denitrification in the middle and bottom layers (ML, BL) of IVCW. Zeolites deployed in the upper layer (UL) of IVCW reduced the overall N removal efficiency compared with gravels, due to a stronger nitrification but weaker denitrification. Canna indica (C. indica) was superior to Arundo donax (A. donax) and Thalia dealbata (T. dealbata) for N removal in the UL of IVCW due to higher aboveground biomass accumulation and microbial removal during the first 10 months. Stronger nitrification and denitrification were simultaneously facilitated near the rhizosphere of C. indica. When entered into Dec., A. donax performed higher N removal efficiency than the other two species. The internal replenishment of peats in the ML as carbon sources significantly improved N and P removal efficiency. Zeolites with stronger capacity of ammonium (NH₄⁺) adsorption was more in favor of anammox in the BL, when compared with roseites, but both of them were not conducive to the growth of denitrifiers. However, the deployment of shale ceramisites obtained an opposite result. Gemmata and Pirellula as anammox bacteria were more enriched in the zeolite layer, whereas some anaerobic denitrifiers (Corynebacterium and Paludibacter) and heterotrophic denitrifiers including Bacillus, Geobacter, Pseudomonas, and Lactococcus were more found in shale ceramisite. Supply of peats as carbon sources in the ML was beneficial for the adhesion of anammox bacteria and denitrifiers in the BL of shale ceramisites. An ideal model composed of C. indica + A. donax (DFU)-gravel (UL)-anthracite+peat (ML)-zeolite+shale ceramsite (BL)-Acorus calamus (UFU) was proposed for treating this type of river water to achieve high efficiency.

Potentially toxic metal contamination exerts a significant impact on soil microbes, thus deteriorating soil quality. The seasonality also has effects in shaping soil microbial community. The soil microbial community is a crucial factor representing soil health. However, whether the influence of potentially toxic metals on the microbial community differs in different seasons are still unknown. In this study, we established nine mesocosms of three cadmium treatments to investigate the impact of Cd amendments on the bacterial community of croplands in winter and summer. High bacterial diversity was revealed from the soil samples with 31 phyla. In winter, the abundance of dominant phylum Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, and Verrucomicrobia increased, but Firmicutes decreased in Cd-contaminated soil in winter. Meanwhile, the abundance of Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Chloroflexi showed Cd dose-dependent pattern in winter. In summer, the phylum Gemmatimonadetes and Verrucomicrobia decreased along with Cd dosing, while the dose-effect of Cd was found on the abundance of Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi. At the genus level, 55 genera of bacteria were significantly affected by Cd stress in winter, 24 genera decreased, 11 genera increased along with Cd gradients, and 20 genera changed depending on Cd dosage. In particular, genera Lactococcus, Psychrobacter, Brochothrix, Enhydrobacter, and Carnobacterium disappeared in Cd treatments, suggesting high sensitivity to Cd stress in winter. In summer, one genus decreased, seven genera increased with Cd dosing, and three genera were dose-dependent. The contrasting effects of Cd on soil bacterial community could be due to different edaphic factors in winter (moisture, available phosphorus, and total Cd) and summer (available Cd). Collectively, the winter-induced multiple stressors increase the impact of Cd on bacterial community in cropland. In further studies, the seasonal factor should be taken into consideration during the sampling stage.

To unravel the ecological function played by pioneer plants in the practical restoration of mine tailings, it is vital to explore changes of soil characteristics and microbial communities in rhizosphere and bulk soil following the adaptation and survival of plants. In the present study, the diversity and structure of rhizospheric bacterial communities of three pioneer plants in copper mine tailings were investigated by Illumina MiSeq sequencing, and the effects of pioneer plants on soil properties were also evaluated. Significant soil improvement was detected in rhizospheric samples, and Alnus cremastogyne showed higher total organic matter, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus than two other herbaceous plants. Microbial diversity indices in rhizosphere and bulk soil of reclaimed tailings were significantly higher than bare tailings, even the soil properties of bulk soil in reclaimed tailings were not significantly different from those of bare tailings. A detailed taxonomic composition analysis demonstrated that Alphaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Gemmatimonadetes showed significantly higher relative abundance in rhizosphere and bulk soil. In contrast, Gammaproteobacteria and Firmicutes were abundant in bare tailings, in which Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Lactococcus made up the majority of the bacterial community (63.04%). Many species within known heavy metal resistance and nutrient regulatory microorganism were identified in reclaimed tailings, and were more abundant among rhizospheric microbes. Hierarchical clustering and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) analysis demonstrated that the bacterial profiles in the rhizosphere clustered strictly together according to plant types, and were distinguishable from bulk soil. However, we also identified a large shared OTUs that occurred repeatedly and was unaffected by highly diverse soil properties in rhizosphere and bulk samples. Redundancy analysis indicated that water content and Cu and As concentrations were the main environmental regulators of microbial composition. These results suggest that the interactive effect of pioneer plants and harsh soil environmental conditions remodel the specific bacterial communities in rhizosphere and bulk soil in mine tailings. And A. cremastogyne might be approximate candidate for phytoremediation of mine tailings for better soil amelioration effect and relative higher diversity of bacterial community in rhizosphere.

In the present study, heavy metal (HM)-tolerant phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) were isolated and their performance during the remediation of Pb and Cd in contaminated soil was studied. A total of 16 bacterial strains and one consortium were isolated, and the consortium had the highest phosphate solubilizing ability and HM tolerance. Great variations between the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of consortium cells before and after adsorption of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ revealed that amide I/amide II bonds and carboxyl on the cell surface were involved in binding of metal ions. High-throughput sequencing technique revealed that the consortium was composed of Enterobacter spp., Bacillus spp., and Lactococcus spp. The consortium was added into contaminated soil, and its potential ability in dissolution of phosphate from Ca₃(PO₄)₂ and subsequent immobilization of HMs was tested. Results showed that when Ca₃(PO₄)₂ was applied at 10.60 mg/g soil, PSB addition significantly increased soil available phosphate content from 12.28 to 17.30 mg/kg, thereby enhancing the immobilization rate of Pb and Cd from 69.95 to 80.76% and from 28.38 to 30.81%, respectively. Microcalorimetric analysis revealed that PSB addition significantly improved soil microbial activity, which was possibly related with the decreased HMs availability and the nutrient effect of the solubilized phosphate. The present study can provide a cost-effective and environmental-friendly strategy to remediate multiple HM-contaminated soils.