Mounting evidence has shown that an alteration of the gut microbiota is associated with diet, and plays an important role in animal health and metabolic diseases. However, little is known about the influence of environmental contaminants on the gut microbial community. Bisphenol A (BPA), which is widely used for manufacturing plastic products, has recently been classified as an environmental obesogen. Although many studies have demonstrated the metabolic-disrupting effects of BPA on liver and pancreatic functions, the possible effects of this synthetic compound on the metabolic diversity of the intestinal microbiota is unknown. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis on caecum samples of CD-1 mice, the present study aimed to test the hypothesis that dietary BPA intake may influence the gut microbiota composition and functions, an important attributing factor to development of the metabolic syndrome. A high-fat diet (HFD) and high-sucrose diet (HSD) were included as the positive controls for comparing the changes in the intestinal microbial profiles. Our results demonstrated a significant reduction of species diversity in the gut microbiota of BPA-fed mice. Alpha and beta diversity analyses showed that dietary BPA intake led to a similar gut microbial community structure as that induced by HFD and HSD in mice. In addition, comparative analysis of the microbial communities revealed that both BPA and a HFD favored the growth of Proteobacteria, a microbial marker of dysbiosis. Consistently, growth induction of the family Helicobacteraceae and reduction of the Firmicutes and Clostridia populations were observed in the mice fed BPA or a HFD. Collectively, our study highlighted that the effects of dietary BPA intake on the shift of microbial community structure were similar to those of a HFD and HSD, and revealed microbial markers for the development of diseases associated with an unstable microbiota.

Dietary exposure to chemicals alters the diversity of microbiome communities and can lead to pathophysiological changes in the gastrointestinal system. The organochlorine pesticide dieldrin is a persistent environmental contaminant that bioaccumulates in fatty tissue of aquatic organisms. The objectives of this study were to determine whether environmentally-relevant doses of dieldrin altered gastrointestinal morphology and the microbiome of zebrafish. Adult zebrafish at ∼4 months of age were fed a measured amount of feed containing either a solvent control or one of two doses of dieldrin (measured at 16, and 163.5 ng/g dry weight) for 4 months. Dieldrin body burden levels in zebrafish after four-month exposure were 0 (control), 11.47 ± 1.13 ng/g (low dose) and 18.32 ± 1.32 ng/g (high dose) wet weight [mean ± std]. Extensive histopathology at the whole organism level revealed that dieldrin exposure did not induce notable tissue pathology, including the gastrointestinal tract. A repeated measure mixed model analysis revealed that, while fish gained weight over time, there were no dieldrin-specific effects on body weight. Fecal content was collected from the gastrointestinal tract of males and 16S rRNA gene sequencing conducted. Dieldrin at a measured feed dose of 16 ng/g reduced the abundance of Firmicutes, a phylum involved in energy resorption. At the level of class, there was a decrease in abundance of Clostridia and Betaproteobacteria, and an increase in Verrucomicrobiae species. We used a computational approach called predicted relative metabolomic turnover (PRMT) to predict how a shift in microbial community composition affects exchange of metabolites. Dieldrin was predicted to affect metabolic turnover of uroporphyrinogen I and coproporphyrinogen I [enzyme]−cysteine, hydrogen selenide, selenite, and methyl-selenic acid in the fish gastrointestinal system. These pathways are related to bacterial heme biosynthesis and selenium metabolism. Our study demonstrates that dietary exposures to dieldrin can alter microbiota composition over 4 months, however the long-term consequences of such impacts are not well understood.

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.

The bio-reduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) by anaerobic fermentation is considered as a promising, low-cost and environment-friendly way. However, it is unclear for the reduction mechanisms of Cr(VI) in an anaerobic hydrogen fermenter, such as reduction kinetics, related electron donors, migration and transformation, reduction site and key components, and related microorganisms. To clarify these issues, a hydrogen fermenter was designed to reduce Cr(VI) at 55 °C with glucose as initial substrate. Results show that 100 mg/L Cr(VI) can be completely reduced (99.5%) to trivalent chromium (Cr(III) through chemical and biological reactions. Bio-reduction dominates Cr(VI) removal in a first-order exponential decay mode with both glucose and its metabolites (volatile fatty acids) as electron donors. Moreover, volatile fatty acids are more suitable as electron donors for Cr(VI) bio-reduction than glucose. Bacilli, Clostridia and Thermotogae in the fermenter dominated the reduction of Cr(VI) by regulating the production and composition of extracellular polymers (EPSs), in which carboxyl and hydroxyl groups play an important role for Cr(VI) reduction by coordination. The results can guide us to regulate the bio-reduction of Cr(VI), and provide reference for the development of bio-reduction technology of Cr(VI).

The spatial extent and persistence of bacterial change caused by deposition of water-based drill cuttings on the seafloor were explored by a community-wide approach. Ten centimeter sediment cores were sampled along transects extending from ≤15 m to 250 m from three nearby drilling sites in the southern Barents Sea. Eight months, 8 years and 15 years, respectively, had passed since the completion of the drillings. At locations heavily affected by drill cuttings, the two most recent sites showed distinct, corresponding deviances from native Barents Sea bacterial community profiles. Otherwise marginal groups, including Mollicutes and Clostridia, showed significant increases in relative abundance. Beyond 100 m from the boreholes the microbiotas appeared undisturbed, as they did at any distance from the 15-years old borehole. The extent of the biological distortion, as indicated by the present microbial study, agreed with previously published macrofaunal surveys at the same drilling sites.

Microbial communities of coastal marine sediment play a key role in degradation of petroleum contaminants. Here the bacterial and archaeal communities of sub-surface sediments (5–10 cm) of the chronically polluted Priolo Bay (eastern coast of Sicily, Italy), contaminated mainly by n-alkanes and biodegraded/weathered oils, were characterized by cultural and molecular approaches. 16S-PCR-DGGE analysis at six stations, revealed that bacterial communities are highly divergent and display lower phylogenetic diversity than the surface sediment; sub-surface communities respond to oil supplementation in microcosms with a significant reduction in biodiversity and a shift in composition; they retain high biodegradation capacities and host hydrocarbon (HC) degraders that were isolated and identified. HC-degrading Alfa, Gamma and Epsilon proteobacteria together with Clostridia and Archaea are a common feature of sub-surface communities. These assemblages show similarities with that of subsurface petroleum reservoirs also characterized by the presence of biodegraded and weathered oils where anaerobic or microaerophilic syntrophic HC metabolism has been proposed.

In this study, we evaluate the influence of hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) on bacterial communities of sediment core from an estuary formed during the period of 1960–2011. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that o,p′-DDT, o,p′-DDD (mitotane), and depth had important influences on bacterial community distributions (p<0.05). Furthermore, our results found variance explained by all variables was 82.9%, while that by o,p′-DDD was 24.4%, and that of o,p′-DDT was 9.8%, indicating that o,p′-DDD had a greater influence on sediment-dwelling bacteria than o,p′-DDT. Also, bacterial diversity was affected and the Shannon index was significantly negatively correlated with total HCHs (r=−0.579, p<0.05) and total DDTs (r=−0.607, p<0.01), respectively. Furthermore, our results showed that Flavobacteria and Clostridia content can be considered an indicator of pollution of HCHs and DDTs in sediment core samples.

This study investigated the microbial structure in the surface seawater from five coastal sites around Xiamen Island, China, over four seasons to evaluate seasonal environmental fluctuations impact on them. This subtropical island is characterized by long, hot, humid summers, and short, mild, dry winters. All sites were dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, and Firmicutes; microbial community composition was similar across four seasons. However, larger proportions of Gammaproteobacteria and Bacillus were observed during the summer than during any other season. The high ratio of Bacillus, Bacteroidetes, and Clostridia richness to Alphaproteobacteria richness in the summer, suggested that the sites we tested were heavily affected by waste water to other seasons. Correlation-based network analyses among the bacterial species and environmental variables indicated important connections between physiochemical variables and specific taxonomic groups. Collectively, our results suggested that seasonal shifts and wastewater pollution together shape the structures of the microbial communities around Xiamen Island.

Cost-efficient and environmentally friendly treatment of hydraulic fracturing effluents is of great significance for the sustainable development of shale gas exploration. We investigated the synergistic effects of plant-microbial treatment of shale gas fracturing waste fluid. The results showed that illumination wavelength and temperature are direct drivers for microbial treatment effects of CODCᵣ and BOD₅, while exhibit little effects on nitrogen compounds, TDS, EC, and SS removals as well as microbial species and composition. Plant-microbial synergism could significantly enhance the removal of pollutants compared with removal efficiency without plant enhancement. Additionally, the relative abundance and structure of microorganisms in the hydraulic fracturing effluents greatly varied with the illumination wavelength and temperature under plant-microbial synergism. 201.24 g water dropwort and 435 mg/L activated sludge with illumination of 450–495 nm (blue) at 25 °C was proved as the best treatment condition for shale gas fracturing waste fluid samples, which showed the highest removal efficiency of pollutants and the lowest algal toxicity in treated hydraulic fracturing effluents. The microbial community composition (36.73% Flavobacteriia, 25.01% Gammaproteobacteria, 18.55% Bacteroidia, 9.3% Alphaproteobacteria, 4.1% Cytophagia, and 2.83% Clostridia) was also significantly different from other treatments. The results provide a potential technical solution for improved treatment of shale gas hydraulic fracturing effluents.

During rainfall, phosphorus in drainage pipe sediments is easily washed and released. This study investigates the migration of phosphorus between sediments and water in storm and sewage sewers, the microbial community structure in sediments, and phosphorus transformation under biological action. Results showed that when the initial concentration of phosphorus in stormwater (water column) in storm sewer was high (1–2 mg/L), the total phosphorus (TP) level decreased in the water column but increased in the sediments, showing a trend of phosphorus migration from the water column to the sediments. Moreover, under high concentration (2 mg/L), the TP level decreased by 83.19% in the water column within 210 min, which was greater than 64.9% of the medium-concentration stormwater (1 mg/L). In sewage sewer, when the initial concentration of phosphorus in sewage was about 2 mg/L, phosphorus would migrate from the sediments and interstitial water to the water column because of the high concentration of phosphorus in the sediments. In addition, the variation in phosphorus was caused not only by concentration gradient but also by microbial communities. Phosphate accumulating organisms, such as Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Actinobacteria, existed in the storm and sewage sewers, which could ingest dissolved reactive phosphorus in the water column and interstitial water and convert it into phosphorus in organisms. In storm sewers, Acidimicrobiia transferred phosphorus from the water column and interstitial water to the sediments through biochemical reactions and physical adsorption. In sewage sewers, organic acids secreted by Clostridia, Bacteroidia, and Bacilli could dissolve some insoluble phosphorus in sediments and then transfer them to interstitial water.