Integron-associated genes are reliable indicators of antibiotic resistance in wastewater despite treatment- and seasonality-driven fluctuations.

Autor: Tavares RDS; Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Functional Ecology, Associate Laboratory TERRA, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal; Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal., Fidalgo C; Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal., Rodrigues ET; Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Functional Ecology, Associate Laboratory TERRA, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal., Tacão M; Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: martat@ua.pt., Henriques I; Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Functional Ecology, Associate Laboratory TERRA, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Water research [Water Res] 2024 Jul 01; Vol. 258, pp. 121784. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 May 14.
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121784
Abstrakt: The present study aims to characterize the bacterial community, resistome and integron abundance of a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) over the course of 12 months and evaluate the year-long performance of integron-related genes as potential indicators of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in influents and effluents. For that, total DNA was extracted and subjected to 16S rRNA-targeted metabarcoding, high-throughput (HT) qPCR (48 targets) and standard qPCR (5 targets). Targets included integrase genes, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and putative pathogenic groups. A total of 16 physicochemical parameters determined in the wastewater samples were also considered. Results revealed that the WWTP treatment significantly impacted the bacterial community, as well as the content in ARGs and integrase genes. Indeed, there was a relative enrichment from influent to effluent of 13 pathogenic groups (e.g., Legionella and Mycobacterium) and genes conferring resistance to sulphonamides, aminoglycosides and disinfectants. Effluent samples (n = 25) also presented seasonal differences, with an increase of the total ARGs' concentration in summer, and differences between winter and summer on relative abundance of sulphonamide and disinfectant resistance mechanisms. From the eight putative integron-related genes selected, all were positively correlated with the total ARGs' content in wastewater and the relative abundance of resistance to most of the specific antibiotic classes. The genes intI1, bla GES and qacE∆1 were the most strongly correlated with the total concentration of ARGs. Genes bla GES and bla VIM , were better correlated to resistance to beta-lactams, aminoglycosides and tetracyclines. This study supports the use of integron-related genes as powerful indicators of antibiotic resistance in wastewater, being robust despite the variability caused by wastewater treatment and seasonality.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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