IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i4p3593-d1072212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Fuzheng Zhao

    (Key Laboratory of Yellow River Water Environment in Gansu Province, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China
    School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China
    State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuzheng Zhao & Bo Wang & Kailong Huang & Jinbao Yin & Xuechang Ren & Zhu Wang & Xu-Xiang Zhang, 2023. "Correlations among Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Mobile Genetic Elements and Microbial Communities in Municipal Sewage Treatment Plants Revealed by High-Throughput Sequencing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3593-:d:1072212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3593/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3593/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3593-:d:1072212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.