Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Urban Water Recycling and Environmental Safety, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China; Shenzhen Environmental Science and New Energy Laboratory, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
School of Life Sciences, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 1;806(Pt 3):151390. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151390. Epub 2021 Nov 3.
Antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) pollution in estuarine environment has drawn great attention, and it is not clear if the physical and chemical parameters such as salinity, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus and antibiotics affects the distribution of ARGs. Herein, we deciphered the ARG profiles and microbial community compositions in sediments from Jiulong River Estuary (JRE) and Min River Estuary (MRE) of China using high-throughput sequencing-based metagenomics analysis. Furthermore, we explored the influence of salinity on bacterial community and ARG profiles. The results showed that Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Acidobacteria were the dominant phyla in these two estuaries. The abundance of ARGs ranged from 1.05 × 10 to 2.93 × 10 copy of ARG per copy of 16S rRNA gene in all the sediment samples and the profiles of ARGs presented similar patterns in two estuaries. Multidrug resistance genes were the dominant ARG types in both estuaries, with an overall abundance of 2.39 × 10-1.07 × 10 copy of ARG per copy of 16S rRNA gene, followed by genes conferring resistance to bacitracin and macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin. Salinity was an important influencing factor on the bacterial community but not on the ARG profiles. Instead, stochastic processes exerted the main influence on the distribution of ARGs. The comparison of ARG profiles among estuary sediments, marine sediments, and samples from anthropogenic pollution environments revealed remarkable similarity of ARG profiles between samples from estuary sediments and those from municipal wastewater treatment plants. These results suggested that the complex emission of anthropogenic pollution could cause the stochastic ecological pattern of ARGs.
抗生素耐药基因 (ARG) 污染在河口环境中引起了广泛关注，但目前尚不清楚盐度、总有机碳、总氮、总磷和抗生素等理化参数是否会影响 ARG 的分布。本研究采用高通量测序宏基因组分析，解析了中国九龙江河口 (JRE) 和闽江河口 (MRE) 沉积物中的 ARG 谱和微生物群落组成。此外，还探讨了盐度对细菌群落和 ARG 谱的影响。结果表明，两个河口的优势菌群均为变形菌门 (Proteobacteria)、绿弯菌门 (Chloroflexi) 和酸杆菌门 (Acidobacteria)。所有沉积物样本中 ARG 的丰度范围为 1.05×10-2.93×10 拷贝 ARG 每 16S rRNA 基因拷贝，两种河口的 ARG 谱呈现相似的模式。两种河口均以多药耐药基因 (Multidrug resistance genes) 为主导 ARG 类型，其丰度分别为 2.39×10-1.07×10 拷贝 ARG 每 16S rRNA 基因拷贝，其次是对杆菌肽和大环内酯-林可酰胺-链阳性菌素具有抗性的基因。盐度是影响细菌群落的重要因素，但不是影响 ARG 谱的因素。相反，随机过程对 ARG 的分布起主要影响。河口沉积物、海洋沉积物和人为污染环境样本中的 ARG 谱比较表明，河口沉积物样本和城市污水处理厂样本的 ARG 谱具有显著相似性。这些结果表明，人为污染的复杂排放可能导致 ARG 的随机生态模式。
