2019 Cavalca FMIB
Exploring biodiversity and arsenic metabolism of microbiota inhabiting arsenic-rich groundwaters in Northern Italy
Cavalca L., Zecchin S., Zaccheo P., Abbas B., Rotiroti M., Bonomi T., Muyzer G.
Arsenic contamination of drinking water is an issue of global concern. In several Italian groundwater aquifers, arsenic levels above the WHO limit of 10 µgL-1 are present. In this study, the role of microbial communities in metalloid cycling in groundwater samples from Northern Italy has been investigated combining environmental genomics and cultivation approaches. In these subsurface ecosystems, different bacterial metabolisms confer plasticity to microbial community and re-direct biogeochemical cycles when environmental conditions change, thus solubilizing arsenic from aquifer sediments.
The research, coordinated by the University of Milan, has been conducted in collaboration with Prof. Gerard Muyzer of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam, NL) and it was supported by CARIPLO Foundation with projects 2010-2221 and 2014-1301. The Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, University of Milan, partially covered the open access APC.
