Subsurface landfill leachate contamination affects microbial metabolic potential and gene expression in the Banisveld aquifer

Subsurface landfill leachate contamination affects microbial metabolic potential and gene expression in the Banisveld aquifer

Taş, Neslihan (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
Brandt, Bernd W. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Braster, Martin (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
van Breukelen, B.M. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
Röling, Wilfred F.M. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

2018-10-01

Microbial communities in groundwater ecosystems can develop the capacity to degrade complex mixtures of chemicals resulting from pollution by landfill leachate. Monitoring this natural attenuation requires insight into the metabolic potential and activity of microbial communities. We contrasted the metagenomes and metatranscriptomes from a leachate-polluted aquifer downstream of the Banisveld (the Netherlands) landfill with uncontaminated groundwater, which revealed changes in microbial genomic content and activity. Banisveld landfill leachate contains mono-aromatic hydrocarbons and the assessment of natural attenuation of these compounds in the aquifer had been a focal point of research. In the contaminated groundwater, active microbial functions were the ones involved in degradation of complex carbon substrates and organic pollutants. We found that benzylsuccinate synthase genes-involved in the catabolism of toluene-were highly expressed close to the source of contamination, confirming the ongoing natural attenuation of organic mono-aromatic hydrocarbon pollution in this aquifer. Additionally, metatranscriptomes were indicative of phosphorus limitation that can constrain total microbial activity and agree with the low phosphate concentrations ( < 0.4 μmol/L) in this aquifer. Through the application of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, we were able to determine functional potential and expression patterns to assess the natural attenuation processes and constraints on microbial communities.

BTEX
Groundwater
Metagenomics
Metatranscriptomics
Natural attenuation
Pollutant degradation

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:698ca0fa-07db-438e-b5ff-a06b3ddd1566

https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiy156

2019-02-14

0168-6496

FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 94 (10)

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2018 Neslihan Taş, Bernd W. Brandt, Martin Braster, B.M. van Breukelen, Wilfred F.M. Röling