Distribution and Influence on the Microbial Ecological Relationship of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Soil at a Watershed Scale

Yi-Long Hao, Gang Li, Zu-Fei Xiao, Ning Liu, Muhammad Azeem, Yi Zhao, Yao-Yang Xu and Xin-Wei Yu
Additional contact information
Yi-Long Hao: College of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Gang Li: CAS Engineering Laboratory for Recycling Technology of Municipal Solid Waste, CAS Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Zu-Fei Xiao: CAS Engineering Laboratory for Recycling Technology of Municipal Solid Waste, CAS Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Ning Liu: CAS Engineering Laboratory for Recycling Technology of Municipal Solid Waste, CAS Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Muhammad Azeem: CAS Engineering Laboratory for Recycling Technology of Municipal Solid Waste, CAS Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Yi Zhao: School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Yao-Yang Xu: CAS Engineering Laboratory for Recycling Technology of Municipal Solid Waste, CAS Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China
Xin-Wei Yu: Key Laboratory of Health Risk Factors for Seafood of Zhejiang Province, Zhoushan Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zhoushan 316021, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are ubiquitous in the environment, with previous studies mainly focusing on the terrestrial ecosystem, which is prone to higher antibiotic application. However, the characteristics, distribution pattern, and driving factors of soil ARGs at the macro scale are still unclear. In this study, the soil ARGs, antibiotics, mobile genetic elements (MGEs), soil properties, toxic metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and bacterial community in the Taipu River Basin were analyzed to investigate the distribution and dissemination of ARGs at a watershed scale. The results revealed that ARGs were widespread in the soils along the Taipu River, and that ARG profiles varied greatly with different types of land use, but showed regional similarities. The characteristics were mainly determined by antibiotic input and the ARG transmission mediated by MGEs. The order of the contribution of environmental factors to ARG distribution was toxic metals > PAHs > soil properties. Toxic metal pollution was coupled with ARGs through MGE mediation, while PAHs and soil properties were most likely to affect the ARG distribution by shifting the bacterial community. The microbial–ecological relationship changed significantly with the enrichment of ARGs, and its impact may extend to the watershed scale. Transposon IS1247 can be used as an indicator of the ARGs impact on the microbial ecological relationship in the soils of the Taipu River Basin.

Keywords: soil; antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); watershed; microbial community structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9748/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9748/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:17:p:9748-:d:625660

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().