Metal resistance systems in cultivated bacteria: are they found in complex communities?

Metal resistance systems found in complex bacterial communities by shotgun metagenomic approaches were reviewed. For that, 6 recent studies investigating 9 metal contaminated environments (water or sediments) were selected. Of the 22 possible metal-resistance systems, only 14 were found in complex communities. These widespread and easily detected metal-resistance systems were mainly biogenic sulfide production (dsr genes), resistance mediated in the periplasm (CopK and multicopper oxidases such as PcoA/CopA), efflux proteins (HME-RND systems, P-type ATPases, and the cation diffusion facilitator CzcD) as well as proteins used to treat oxidative damages (e.g., SodA) and down regulation of transporters. A total of 8 metal-resistance systems were not found in the complex communities investigated. These rare systems include metal resistance by phosphatases, ureases, metallophores, outer membrane vesicles, methylation genes and cytoplasmic metal accumulation systems. In this case rarity may also be explained by a lack of knowledge on the specific genes involved and/or analytical biases.