Fuente: PubMed "microbial biotechnology" Mar Pollut Bull. 2025 Nov 29;223:119049. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.119049. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTSulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRPs) play key roles in marine biogeochemical cycles, yet their biogeographic patterns and ecological interactions across environmental gradients in coastal sediments remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the spatial distribution, co-occurrence relationships, and environmental drivers of SRP communities along a 200 km coastal gradient in northern Zhejiang, China, using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and co-occurrence network analysis. The SRP community was taxonomically dominated by members of Desulfobacterota, particularly Desulfobulbaceae, Desulfosarcinaceae, and Syntrophobacteraceae. The α-diversity and relative abundance of SRP communities showed significant spatial variation, increasing markedly along the bays-nearshore-offshore gradient. SRPs played disproportionately important roles in prokaryotic co-occurrence networks, especially in offshore sediments, where their contribution to network complexity was highest. SRPs were closely related to diverse non-sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (non-SRPs), such as Anaerolineaceae, Woeseiaceae, and Bathyarchaeia. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) indicated that both natural (e.g., water depth, pH, sulfur) and anthropogenic factors (e.g., nitrate, ammonium, heavy metals) influenced SRP communities, with anthropogenic factors exerting slightly stronger overall effects. These results emphasize the spatial structuring of SRP communities in response to environmental gradients and highlight their integral roles in the microbial networks of coastal sediments.PMID:41319506 | DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.119049