Microarray data and gene expression statistics for Saccharomyces cerevisiae exposed to simulated asbestos mine drainage.

Here we describe microarray expression data (raw and normalized), experimental metadata, and gene-level data with expression statistics from Saccharomyces cerevisiae exposed to simulated asbestos mine drainage from the Vermont Asbestos Group (VAG) Mine on Belvidere Mountain in northern Vermont, USA. For nearly 100 years (between the late 1890s and 1993), chrysotile asbestos fibers were extracted from serpentinized ultramafic rock at the VAG Mine for use in construction and manufacturing industries. Studies have shown that water courses and streambeds nearby have become contaminated with asbestos mine tailings runoff, including elevated levels of magnesium, nickel, chromium, and arsenic, elevated pH, and chrysotile asbestos-laden mine tailings, due to leaching and gradual erosion of massive piles of mine waste covering approximately 9 km2. We exposed yeast to simulated VAG Mine tailings leachate to help gain insight on how eukaryotic cells exposed to VAG Mine drainage may respond in the mine environment. Affymetrix GeneChip® Yeast Genome 2.0 Arrays were utilized to assess gene expression after 24-h exposure to simulated VAG Mine tailings runoff. The chemistry of mine-tailings leachate, mine-tailings leachate plus yeast extract peptone dextrose media, and control yeast extract peptone dextrose media is also reported. To our knowledge this is the first dataset to assess global gene expression patterns in a eukaryotic model system simulating asbestos mine tailings runoff exposure. Raw and normalized gene expression data are accessible through the National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus (NCBI GEO) Database Series GSE89875 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE89875).

Metagenomic investigation of the microbial diversity in a chrysotile asbestos mine pit pond, Lowell, Vermont, USA.

Here we report on a metagenomics investigation of the microbial diversity in a serpentine-hosted aquatic habitat created by chrysotile asbestos mining activity at the Vermont Asbestos Group (VAG) Mine in northern Vermont, USA. The now-abandoned VAG Mine on Belvidere Mountain in the towns of Eden and Lowell includes three open-pit quarries, a flooded pit, mill buildings, roads, and > 26 million metric tons of eroding mine waste that contribute alkaline mine drainage to the surrounding watershed. Metagenomes and water chemistry originated from aquatic samples taken at three depths (0.5 m, 3.5 m, and 25 m) along the water column at three distinct, offshore sites within the mine's flooded pit (near 44°46'00.7673″, - 72°31'36.2699″; UTM NAD 83 Zone 18 T 0695720 E, 4960030 N). Whole metagenome shotgun Illumina paired-end sequences were quality trimmed and analyzed based on a translated nucleotide search of NCBI-NR protein database and lowest common ancestor taxonomic assignments. Our results show strata within the pit pond water column can be distinguished by taxonomic composition and distribution, pH, temperature, conductivity, light intensity, and concentrations of dissolved oxygen. At the phylum level, metagenomes from 0.5 m and 3.5 m contained a similar distribution of taxa and were dominated by Actinobacteria (46% and 53% of reads, respectively), Proteobacteria (45% and 38%, respectively), and Bacteroidetes (7% in both). The metagenomes from 25 m showed a greater diversity of phyla and a different distribution of reads than the two upper strata: Proteobacteria (60%), Actinobacteria (18%), Planctomycetes, (10%), Bacteroidetes (5%) and Cyanobacteria (2.5%), Armatimonadetes (< 1%), Verrucomicrobia (< 1%), Firmicutes (< 1%), and Nitrospirae (< 1%). Raw metagenome sequence data from each sample reside in NCBI's Short Read Archive (SRA ID: SRP056095) and are accessible through NCBI BioProject PRJNA277916.