RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Effects of graphene oxide and graphite on soil bacterial and fungal diversity
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 530485
DO 10.1101/530485
A1 Christian Forstner
A1 Thomas G. Orton
A1 Adam Skarshewski
A1 Peng Wang
A1 Peter M. Kopittke
A1 Paul G. Dennis
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/12/530485.abstract
AB Graphene oxide (GO) is an oxidized form of graphene that is relatively cheap and easy to produce. This has heralded its widespread use in a range of industries, with its likelihood of release into the environment increasing accordingly. In pure culture, GO has been shown to influence bacteria and fungi, but its effects on environmental microbial communities remain poorly characterized, despite the important ecosystem services that these organisms underpin. Here, we characterized the effects of GO and graphite, over time and at three concentrations (1 ng, 1 μg and 1 mg kg dry soil−1), on soil bacterial and fungal diversity using 16S rRNA and ITS2 gene amplicon sequencing. Graphite was included as a reference material as it is widely distributed in the environment. Neither GO or graphite had significant effects on the alpha diversity of microbial communities. The composition of bacterial and fungal communities, however, was significantly influenced by both materials at all doses. Nonetheless, the effects of GO and graphite were of similar magnitude, albeit with some differences in the taxa affected.