soil metagenome Raw sequence reads

The extensive application of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) results in their ubiquitous occurrence in the environment. However, little is known about the influences of PFASs on microorganisms in the environment. In this study, two typical PFASs, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), are selected to investigate their long-term effects on soil microbes. Microbial community structures and diversity were evaluated using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and multiple statistical methods. Under 90-days of exposure, PFAS treatments increased the alpha-diversity of soil microbial communities with PFOS treatment, followed by PFOA treatment. The long-term exposure of PFASs substantially changed the compositions of microbial communities in the soils. The most abundant phylum Proteobacteria decreased from 82.9% (without amended PFASs) to 62.1% (with PFOA treatment) and 77.8% (with PFOS treatment). In contrast, the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Ignavibacteriae increased in the PFOA or PFOS groups. Two co-occurrence networks were constructed to compare the biotic interactions in the two treatments. It was found that most taxonomy nodes in the PFOA and PFOS networks were associated with the genus Hydrogenophaga and Pseudoxanthomonas, respectively. The LEfSe analysis identified a set of core taxonomies (e.g., Azospirillum, Methyloversatilis, Ancylobacter, Hydrogenophaga, and Methylomonas) in the soil microbial communities treated using PFOA or PFOS and suggested their different preferences to PFAS exposures. Functional gene prediction suggested that the microbial metabolism processes, such as cell motility, nucleotide transport and metabolism, carbohydrate transport and metabolism, defense mechanisms, energy production and conversion, cell wall membrane envelope biogenesis, and secondary metabolites biosynthesis transport and catabolism, might be significantly inhibited under PFAS exposure, which may further affect soil ecological services.