%0 Journal Article
%T Facilitating New Chromium Reducing Microbes to Enhance Hexavalent Chromium Reduction by In Situ Sonoporation-Mediated Gene Transfer in Soils.
%A Zhao K
%A Zhang W
%A Liang Z
%A Zhao H
%A Chai J
%A Yang Y
%A Teng T
%A Zhang D
%J Environ Sci Technol
%V 57
%N 40
%D 2023 Oct 10
%M 37747805
%F 11.357
%R 10.1021/acs.est.3c04655
%X Chromium (Cr) is a heavy metal with a high toxicity and pathogenicity. Microbial reduction is an effective strategy to remove Cr(VI) at contaminated sites but suffers from the low populations and activities of Cr-reducing microorganisms in soils. This study proposed an in situ sonoporation-mediated gene transfer approach, which improved soil Cr(VI) reduction performance by delivering exogenous Cr-transporter chrA genes and Cr-reducing yieF genes into soil microorganisms with the aid of ultrasound. Besides the increasing populations of Cr-resistant bacteria and elevated copy numbers of chrA and yieF genes after sonoporation-mediated gene transfer, three new Cr-reducing strains were isolated, among which Comamonas aquatica was confirmed to obtain Cr-resistant capability. In addition, sonoporation-mediated gene transfer was the main driving force significantly shaping soil microbial communities owing to the predominance of Cr-resistant microbes. This study pioneered and evidenced that in situ soil sonoporation-mediated gene transfer could effectively deliver functional genes into soil indigenous microbes to facilitate microbial functions for enhanced bioremediation, e.g., Cr-reduction in this study, showing its feasibility as a chemically green and sustainable remediation strategy for heavy metal contaminated sites.