Microbial diversity in acid mine drainage of Xiang Mountain sulfide mine, Anhui Province, China

To understand the composition and structure of microbial communities in acid (pH 3.0) mine drainage (AMD) associated with pyrite mine tailings in Anhui Province, China, molecular diversities of 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes were examined using a PCR-based cloning approach. Bacterial, archaeal and microeukaryotic clone libraries were constructed. In contrast to typical dominance of autotrophic acidophiles, genus Acidiphilium, which consists of mixotrophic acidophiles capable of chemoorganotrophic and photosynthetic metabolisms, was the largest group in the bacterial clone library. These mixotrophic organisms may be advantageous in the oligotrophic AMD environment of the study site (certain amounts of dissolved organic carbon and light) by switching between two modes of metabolisms. Unexpectedly, a large fraction of bacterial clones (12.7%) were related to the neutrophilic genus Legionella, which can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially lethal pneumonia. The eukaryotic 18S rRNA gene sequences were mostly related to Oxytricha, Nuclearia, and Penicillium. In the archaeal clone library, all the sequences were affiliated to the phylum Crenarchaeota, while the Euryarchaeota was not present.