Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Shenzhen Environmental Science and New Energy Laboratory, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Tsinghua University, China.
Water Res. 2024 Nov 1;265:122253. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.122253. Epub 2024 Aug 12.
Viruses are the most abundant yet understudied members that may influence microbial metabolism in activated sludge treating antibiotic production wastewater. This study comprehensively investigated virome community characteristics under the selection pressure of nine types and different concentrations of antibiotics using a metagenomics approach. Of the 15,514 total viral operational taxonomic units (tOTUs) recovered, only 37.5 % were annotated. Antibiotics altered the original viral community structure in activated sludge. The proportion of some pathogenic viral families, including Herpesviridae_like, increased significantly in reactors treating erythromycin production wastewater. In total, 16.5 % of the tOTUs were associated with two or more hosts. tOTUs rarely carried antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and the ARG types in the tOTUs did not match the ARGs carried by the bacterial hosts. This suggests that transduction contributes little to the horizontal ARG transfer. Auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) were prevalent in tOTUs, and those involved in folate biosynthesis were particularly abundant, indicating their potential to mitigate antibiotic-induced host damage. This study provides comprehensive insights into the virome community in activated sludge treating antibiotic production wastewater and sheds light on the potential role of viral AMGs in mitigating antibiotic-induced stress.
病毒是最丰富但研究最少的成员，它们可能会影响活性污泥处理抗生素生产废水中的微生物代谢。本研究采用宏基因组学方法，综合研究了在九种抗生素和不同浓度抗生素选择压力下病毒组群落特征。在回收的 15514 个总病毒分类操作单元（tOTU）中，只有 37.5%被注释。抗生素改变了活性污泥中原有的病毒群落结构。在处理红霉素生产废水的反应器中，一些致病性病毒家族（包括疱疹病毒样病毒）的比例显著增加。总的来说，2 个或更多宿主的 tOTU 占 16.5%。tOTU 很少携带抗生素抗性基因（ARGs），并且 tOTU 中 ARG 类型与细菌宿主携带的 ARGs 不匹配。这表明转导对水平 ARG 转移的贡献很小。辅助代谢基因（AMGs）在 tOTU 中普遍存在，其中参与叶酸生物合成的 AMGs 特别丰富，表明它们有可能减轻抗生素引起的宿主损伤。本研究全面了解了处理抗生素生产废水的活性污泥中的病毒组群落，并揭示了病毒 AMGs 在减轻抗生素诱导压力方面的潜在作用。
