Testosterone amendment alters metabolite profiles of the soil microbial community

Steroid hormones are prevalent in the environment and have become emerging pollutants, but little is known about their effects on soil microbial community composition and function. In the present study, three representative soils in China were amended with environmentally relevant concentrations of testosterone and responses of soil bacterial community composition and soil function were assessed using high-throughput sequencing and nontargeted metabolomics. Our results showed that testosterone exposure significantly shifted bacterial community structure and metabolic profiles in soils at Ningbo (NB) and Kunming (KM), which may reflect high bioavailability of the hormone. Abundances of several bacterial taxa associated with nutrient cycling were reduced by testosterone and metabolites related to amino acid metabolism were downregulated. A close connection between bacterial taxa and specific metabolites was observed and confirmed by Procrustes tests and a co-occurrence network. These results provide an insight into the effects of steroid hormones on soil microbial community and highlight that nontargeted metabolomics is an effective tool for investigating the impacts of pollutants.