Data_Sheet_5_Exposure to Arsenic Alters the Microbiome of Larval Zebrafish.FASTA

Exposure to environmental toxins such as heavy metals can perturb the development and stability of microbial communities associated with human or animal hosts. Widespread arsenic contamination in rivers and riparian habitats therefore presents environmental and health concerns for populations living near sources of contamination. To investigate how arsenic affects host microbiomes, we sequenced and characterized the microbiomes of twenty larval zebrafish exposed to three concentrations of arsenic that are found in contaminated water—low (10 ppb), medium (50 ppb), and high (100 ppb) for 20 days. We found that even a small concentration of arsenic changed the overall microbial composition, structure and diversity of microbial communities, causing dysbiosis in developing larval zebrafish microbiota. In addition, we found that a high concentration of arsenic also increased the abundance of a class 1 integron, an integrase-dependent system facilitating the horizontal transfer of genes conferring resistance to heavy metals and antibiotics.

环境毒素，如重金属的暴露，可能扰乱与人类或动物宿主相关的微生物群的发育和稳定性。因此，河流和河岸栖息地中广泛存在的砷污染对居住在污染源附近的人群构成了环境和健康上的担忧。为了探究砷如何影响宿主微生物组，我们对暴露于三种砷浓度（低浓度10 ppb、中等浓度50 ppb和高浓度100 ppb）的二十尾斑马鱼幼虫的微生物组进行了测序和表征，这些浓度在受污染的水中均可找到，持续时间为20天。我们发现，即使是微量的砷也会改变微生物群的总体组成、结构和多样性，导致发育中的斑马鱼幼虫微生物群出现菌群失调。此外，我们还发现，高浓度的砷还增加了第一类整合子的丰度，这是一种依赖于整合酶的系统，促进赋予抗重金属和抗生素耐药性的基因的水平转移。