Bacterial diversity in a soil sample from Uranium mining waste pile as estimated via a culture-independent 16S rDNA approach

Bacterial diversity was studied in a soil sample collected from a uranium mining waste pile situated near the town of Johanngeorgenstadt, Germany. As estimated by ICP-MS analysis the studied sample was highly contaminated with Fe, Al, Mn, Zn, As, Pb and U. The 16S rDNA retrieval, applied in this study, demonstrated that more than the half of the clones of the constructed 16S rDNA library were represented by individual RFLP profiles. This indicates that the composition of the bacterial community in the sample was very complex. However, several 16S rDNA RFLP groups were found to be predominant and they were subjected to a sequence analysis. The most predominant group, which represented about 13% of the clones of the 16S rDNA library, was affiliated with the Holophaga/Acidobacterium phylum. Significant was also the number of the proteobacterial sequences which were distributed in one predominant α-proteobacterial cluster representing 11% of the total number of clones and in two equal-sized β- and γ-proteobacterial clusters representing each 6% of the clones. Two smaller groups representing both 2% of the clones were affiliated with Nitrospira and with the novel division WS3. Three of the analysed sequences were evaluated as a novel, not yet described lineage and one as a putative chimera. (authors)