Indigenous functional microbial degradation of the chiral fungicide mandipropamid in repeatedly treated soils: Preferential changes in the R-enantiomer

This study investigated the indigenous functional microbial communities associated with the degradation of chiral fungicide mandipropamid enantiomers in soils repeatedly treated with a single enantiomer. The R-enantiomer degraded faster than the S-enantiomer, with degradation half-lives ranging from 10.2 d to 79.2 d for the R-enantiomer and 10.4 d to 130.5 d for the S-enantiomer. Six bacterial genera, (Burkholderia, Paraburkholderia, Hyphomicrobium, Methylobacterium, Caballeronia, and Ralstonia) with R-enantiomer substrate preference and three bacterial genera (Haliangium, Sorangium, and Sandaracinus) with S-enantiomer substate preference were responsible for the preferential degradation of the R-enantiomer and S-enantiomer, respectively. KEGG analysis indicated that Burkholderia, Paraburkholderia, Hyphomicrobium, and Methylobacterium were the dominant contributors to soil microbial metabolic functions. Notably, six microbial metabolic pathways and twelve functional enzyme genes were associated with the preferential degradation of the R-enantiomer, whose relative abundances in the R-enantiomer treatment were higher than those in the S-enantiomer treatment. A constructed biodegradation gene (BDG) protein database analysis further confirmed that Burkholderia, Paraburkholderia, Hyphomicrobium, Methylobacterium, and Ralstonia were the potential hosts of five dominant BDGs, bphA1, benA, bph, p450, and ppah. We concluded that bacterial genera Burkholderia, Paraburkholderia, Hyphomicrobium, and Methylobacterium may play pivotal roles in the preferential degradation of mandipropamid R-enantiomer in repeatedly treated soils.