Villegas-Plazas, M., J. Sanabria, and H. Junca.
Journal of Environmental Management 251:109581(2019)

Available sequence information and associated metadata about acid mine drainage-impacted microbial communities were reanalyzed and reexamined in a composite comparative manner to understand composition and functions and propose potential genetic enhancements for improved bioremediation strategies. The 16 S rRNA gene-targeted sequencing data from 9 studies previously published including AMD systems reported and studied around the world were collected and reanalyzed to compare and identify the core and most abundant genera in four distinct AMD ecosystems: surface biofilm, water, impacted soils/sediments and bioreactor microbiomes. Microbial communities of bioreactors were the most diverse in bacterial types detected. The metabolic pathways predicted strongly suggest the key role of syntrophic communities with denitrification, methanogenesis, manganese, sulfate and iron reduction. The perspectives to explore the dynamics of engineering systems by high-throughput sequencing and biochemical techniques are discussed and foreseen application of synthetic biology and omics exploration on improved AMD biotransformation are proposed.