Arsenic contamination affects bacterial community composition and predicted As gene abundance

Significant advances have been achieved in our understanding of the physiological processes that are affected by As exposure in aquatic environment. However, the mechanisms underlying the physiological processes are still unclear, and less attention has been paid on dynamic change of As metabolism gene in different phases in aquatic environment. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of As exposure on the distribution, diversity, and abundance of As metabolism genes in the biofilm-water-sediment system using metagenomic analysis.