Correlations among Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Mobile Genetic Elements and Microbial Communities in Municipal Sewage Treatment Plants Revealed by High-Throughput Sequencing

Fuzheng Zhao, Bo Wang, Kailong Huang, Jinbao Yin, Xuechang Ren, Zhu Wang () and Xu-Xiang Zhang ()
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Fuzheng Zhao: Key Laboratory of Yellow River Water Environment in Gansu Province, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Bo Wang: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Kailong Huang: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Jinbao Yin: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Xuechang Ren: School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Zhu Wang: Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Xu-Xiang Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Municipal sewage treatment plants (MSTPs) are environmental pools for antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which is cause for growing environmental-health concerns. In this study, the effects of different wastewater treatment processes on microbial antibiotic resistance in four MSTPs were investigated. PCR, q-PCR, and molecular cloning integrally indicated that the tetracycline resistance ( tet ) genes significantly reduced after activated-sludge treatment. Illumina high-throughput sequencing revealed that the broad-spectrum profile of ARGs and mobile element genes (MGEs) were also greatly decreased by one order of magnitude via activated sludge treatment and were closely associated with each other. Correlations between ARGs and bacterial communities showed that potential ARB, such as Acinetobacter , Bacteroides , and Cloaibacterium , were removed by the activated-sludge process. Sedimentation processes cannot significantly affect the bacterial structure, resulting in the relative abundance of ARGs, MGEs, and ARB in second-clarifier effluent water being similar to activated sludge. A comprehensive study of ARGs associated with MGEs and bacterial structure might be technologically guided for activated sludge design and operation in the MSTPs, to purposefully control ARGs carried by pathogenic hosts and mobility.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance genes; mobile genetic elements; bacterial community structure; high-throughput sequencing; metagenomic; sewage treatment plant (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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