soil microbial community structure and function influenced by Arsenic and antimony co-contamination Raw sequence reads

Arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) co-contaminations pose severe risks to human health and soil ecosystems. Microorganisms are capable to transform As and Sb and thus change the toxicity and mobility of As and Sb. The influence of As and Sb contamination on innate microbiome is extensively characterized. However, it is still ambiguous how the microbial metabolic potentials were influenced by the co-contamination. Here, we selected two contrasting sites to explore the adaptability and response of soil microbiome to As and Sb contamination and the impact of contamination on microbial metabolic potentials. It is observed that soil geochemical parameters including As and Sb fractions were the driving forces for reshaping community structure and metabolic potentials. Bacteria associated with Bradyrhizobium, Nocardioides, Sphingomonas, Burkholderia and Streptomyces were predicted to be tolerant to high concentrations of As and Sb. In addition, co-occurrence network analysis revealed that genes related to C fixation, nitrate/nitrite reduction, N fixation and sulfate reduction were positively correlated with As and Sb fractions, suggesting that As and Sb biogeochemical cycling may interplay with and benefit from C, N and S cycling. Our current study suggested that As and Sb co-contamination not only influence As-related genes, but other genes correlated with microbial C, N, S cycling.