Metagenomic analyses on the bioremediation process of soil contaminated with petroleum and heavy metal

Abstract

Since the 20th century the production of petroleum created an unprecedented prosperity of human civilization However due to factors such as transportation and disposal oil pollution has become a major issue in environmental protection On the other hand heavy metal pollution has a long history of human mining Heavy metals include gold silver and copper As the mining area expands the pollution area also increases In Taiwan many heavy metal pollution events in history such as the RCA pollution For escaping environmental pollution animals can leave and find new lands but plants and microorganisms cannot freely move In the face of adversity plants and microorganisms use different bio-metabolism mechanisms to absorb or degrade these toxic substances and protect cells or plants from toxicity With the rapid development of genomic technology we are able to study the microbial composition in environment which has pollutants In this study I focus on two kinds of contaminated soil petroleum and heavy metal and investigate the bacterial community with targeted Metagenomics by 16S rRNA gene I found that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes are the main components of bacterial community in petroleum-polluted soil Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria are the main components of bacterial community at the site with heavy metal pollution According to the analysis of specific microbiome the proportion of Firmicutes and Tenericutes in petroleum-polluted soil is higher than heavy metal contaminated soil In Macaranga tanarius and Miscanthus floridulus rhizosphere Proteobacteria and Actinomycetes are the main components of the core microbiome of the two plants The above results shows that in different polluted area has their own specific microbial community and different kinds of plants grow in contaminated soil share with similar core microbiome This thesis uses metagenomics to explore more deeply hoping to find the best way to degrade pollutants and protect the earth

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Tzen-Yuh Chiang (Supervisor)