Scholarlink

<p>Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are persistent coastal pollutants, yet the ecological and genomic strategies governing the persistence and function of degraders under in-situ stress remain elusive. Here we decode these adaptive mechanisms using metagenomics and cultivation in the Pearl River Estuary, integrated with global comparative analyses. We reveal a multi-level adaptive strategy where high PAH stress drives ecological network densification and selectively enriches the thermodynamically favorable catechol ortho-cleavage pathway. Crucially, we elucidate a conserved genomic “division of labor”, where chromosomes encode stable upstream activation steps, while plasmids serve as specialized, mobile reservoirs for downstream central aromatic processing. This plasmid-mediated functional partitioning is globally conserved across diverse coastal ecosystems, although the reliance on mobile vectors is dynamically tuned by environmental stability. Collectively, these findings unveil a holistic adaptive framework that integrates ecological cooperation with genomic partitioning, highlighting a plasmid-mediated “plug-and-play” mechanism that underpins microbial resilience and guides precision bioremediation.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Microbial communities and plasmids mediate biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in coastal sediments

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月9日

查看全文
  • Ziqi Peng,
  • Pandeng Wang,
  • Manzoor Ahmad,
  • Xiaoqing Luo,
  • Qi Li,
  • Weicong Yan,
  • Jialing Li,
  • Wenjun Li

摘要

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are persistent coastal pollutants, yet the ecological and genomic strategies governing the persistence and function of degraders under in-situ stress remain elusive. Here we decode these adaptive mechanisms using metagenomics and cultivation in the Pearl River Estuary, integrated with global comparative analyses. We reveal a multi-level adaptive strategy where high PAH stress drives ecological network densification and selectively enriches the thermodynamically favorable catechol ortho-cleavage pathway. Crucially, we elucidate a conserved genomic “division of labor”, where chromosomes encode stable upstream activation steps, while plasmids serve as specialized, mobile reservoirs for downstream central aromatic processing. This plasmid-mediated functional partitioning is globally conserved across diverse coastal ecosystems, although the reliance on mobile vectors is dynamically tuned by environmental stability. Collectively, these findings unveil a holistic adaptive framework that integrates ecological cooperation with genomic partitioning, highlighting a plasmid-mediated “plug-and-play” mechanism that underpins microbial resilience and guides precision bioremediation.