Watershed-scale fungal community characterization along a pH gradient in a subsurface environment cocontaminated with uranium and nitrate.

ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to characterize fungal communities in a subsurface environment cocontaminated with uranium and nitrate at the watershed scale and to determine the potential contribution of fungi to contaminant transformation (nitrate attenuation). The abundance, distribution, and diversity of fungi in subsurface groundwater samples were determined using quantitative and semiquantitative molecular techniques, including quantitative PCR of eukaryotic small-subunit rRNA genes and pyrosequencing of fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. Potential bacterial and fungal denitrification was assessed in sediment-groundwater slurries amended with antimicrobial compounds and in fungal pure cultures isolated from the subsurface. Our results demonstrate that subsurface fungal

SUBMITTER: Jasrotia P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3957637 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature