Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China; Pearl River Estuary Marine Ecosystem Research Station, Ministry of Education, Zhuhai 519082, China.
School of Applied Mathematics, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2024 May 5;469:133943. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133943. Epub 2024 Mar 2.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most concerned global health issues. However, comprehensive profiles of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in various environmental settings are still needed to address modern antibiotic resistome. Here, Arctic soils and representative contaminated samples from ARG pollution sources were analyzed using metagenomic approaches. The diversity and abundance of ARGs in Arctic soils were significantly lower than those in contaminated samples (p < 0.01). ARG profiles in Arctic soils were featured with the dominance of vanF, ceoB, and bacA related to multidrug and bacitracin, whereas those from ARG pollution sources were characterized by prevalent resistance to anthropogenic antibiotics such as sulfonamides, tetracyclines, and beta-lactams. Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) were found in all samples, and their abundance and relatedness to ARGs were both lower in Arctic soils than in polluted samples. Significant relationships between bacterial communities and ARGs were observed (p < 0.01). Cultural bacteria in Arctic soils had clinically-concerned resistance to erythromycin, vancomycin, ampicillin, etc., but ARGs relevant to those antibiotics were undetectable in their genomes. Our results suggested that Arctic environment could be an important reservoir of novel ARGs, and antibiotic stresses could cause ARG pollution via horizontal gene transfer and enrichment of resistant bacteria.
抗生素耐药性是全球最关注的健康问题之一。然而，为了了解现代抗生素抗性组，仍需要全面分析各种环境中抗生素耐药基因（ARG）的概况。本研究采用宏基因组学方法分析了北极土壤和来自 ARG 污染来源的代表性污染样本。北极土壤中 ARG 的多样性和丰度明显低于污染样本（p < 0.01）。北极土壤中的 ARG 图谱以与多药和杆菌肽相关的 vanF、ceoB 和 bacA 为主导，而来自 ARG 污染来源的图谱则以对磺胺类、四环素和β-内酰胺等人为抗生素的抗性为主。所有样本中均发现了移动遗传元件（MGEs），其丰度和与 ARG 的相关性在北极土壤中均低于污染样本。还观察到细菌群落与 ARG 之间存在显著关系（p < 0.01）。北极土壤中的培养细菌对红霉素、万古霉素、氨苄西林等具有临床关注的耐药性，但这些抗生素相关的 ARG 在其基因组中无法检测到。我们的结果表明，北极环境可能是新型 ARG 的重要储存库，抗生素压力可通过水平基因转移和抗性细菌的富集导致 ARG 污染。
