“…Patescibacteria positively correlated with some PCB congeners (i.e., PCB008, PCB052, PCB153, PCB105, PCB138, PCB187, and PCB128), pesticides (i.e., lindane, dieldrin and DDE p–p′), PAHs (acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, and pyrene) and HMs (namely, As, Pb, and Mg). Patescibacteria have been previously found to proliferate in soils under the stress of different heavy metals (Tian et al, 2022). Their enrichment in sponge mesohyl in response to anthropogenic activities was previously reported (Busch et al, 2020).…”