Effects of sulfur nanoparticles on rhizosphere microbial community changes in oilseed rape plantation soil under mercury stress

In the present study, experiments were conducted to assess the influence of nanoscale sulfur in the microbial community structure of metallophytes in Hg-contaminated rhizosphere soil for planting rapeseed. The results showed that the richness and diversity of the rhizobacteria community decreased significantly under Hg stress, but increased slightly after SNPs addition, with a reduction in the loss of Hg-sensitive microorganisms. Moreover, all changes in the relative abundances of the top ten phyla influenced by Hg treatment were reverted when subjected to Hg + SNPs treatment, except for Myxococcota and Bacteroidota. Similarly, the top five genera, whose relative abundance decreased the most under Hg alone compared to CK, increased by 19.05%-54.66% under Hg + SNPs treatment compared with Hg alone. Furthermore, the relative abundance of