Diversity and mechanisms of arsenic resistance among soil bacteria impacted by the ongoing Centralia coal mine fire

Abstract

23 24Arsenic (As), a toxic element, has impacted life since early Earth. Thus, microorganisms have 25 evolved many As resistance and tolerance mechanisms to improve their survival outcomes given 26 As exposure. We isolated As resistant bacteria from Centralia, PA, the site of an underground 27 coal seam fire that has been burning since 1962. From a 57.4°C soil collected from a vent above 28 the fire, we isolated 25 unique aerobic arsenic resistant bacteria spanning six genera. We 29 examined their diversity, resistance gene content, transformation abilities, inhibitory 30 concentrations, and growth phenotypes. Although As concentrations were low at the time of soil 31PeerJ Preprints | https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2451v2 | CC BY 4.0 Open Access |