Effects of long-term fertilization on the diversity of bacterial mercuric reductase gene in a Chinese upland soil

Abstract

Soil mercury (Hg) pollution has received considerable attention due to its neurotoxin effects and its potential risk to food safety. The microbial transformation of Hg plays a key role in reducing Hg toxicity by the mercuric reductase (MerA) conferred by genes arranged in the mer operon. This study investigated the effects of long-term fertilization on the diversity of bacterial mercuric reductase gene (merA), which specify the reduction of ionic Hg 2+ to the volatile elemental form Hg 0, in an agricultural soil with relatively high Hg content. The soil samples were collected from different treatments, including control without fertilizer (CK), fertilizer nitrogen (N), combined fertilizers (..