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Effects of Antibiotics on Microbial Communities Responsible for Perchlorate Degradation

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Abstract

Perchlorate, a pervasive water pollutant, poses a threat to some aquatic environments. Antibiotics, as an emerging contaminant, have increasingly been found in aquatic environments in recent years. As a special co-contaminant, antibiotics modify the composition and function of microbial communities, and the biodegradation rate of perchlorate is changed in the environment. In this study, three typical antibiotics widely found in aquatic ecosystems (lincomycin (LIN), erythromycin (ETM), and sulfadiazine (SDZ)) and two input modes (once and multiple times) were selected to reveal the effects of antibiotics on perchlorate degradation and changes in the microbial community. Additionally, antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) abundance and microbial community composition were analyzed to illustrate the response of bacteria to antibiotic types and input methods by QPCR and high-throughput sequencing. The perchlorate degradation rate was inhibited by three antibiotics (LIN > ETM > SDZ) in this study. LIN and ETM had stronger inhibitory effects on perchlorate degradation, and the abundances of their ARGs increased with increasing antibiotic concentrations. With the continuous culturing and multiple inputs of antibiotics, the percentage of ARGs decreased after crossing a threshold. Additionally, the dominant degradation bacteria were different under pressure from different antibiotics. The type of the antibiotic, the background level of ARGs, and the dissemination of ARGs between bacteria were the main factors influencing the degradation system. The results presented herein will help us understand the modifications of microbial communities that occur in persistent pollutant systems contaminated with antibiotics.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41731282 granted to F Liu and XY Guan).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Ocean Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, No.29 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    Xiaoxuan Zheng, Bo Jiang, Ruirui Zhang, Yiqiang Li & Xiangyu Guan

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Hang Lang, Yingnan Bian & Xiangyu Guan

  3. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine, Shanghai Forensic Service Platform, Academy of Forensic Science, Shanghai, 200063, China

    Yingnan Bian

Authors
  1. Xiaoxuan Zheng
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  2. Bo Jiang
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  3. Hang Lang
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  5. Yiqiang Li
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  6. Yingnan Bian
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  7. Xiangyu Guan
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Correspondence to Xiangyu Guan.

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Electronic Supplementary Material

ESM 1

The abundance of 16S rRNA genes in LIN, ETM and SDZ systems with different concentrations of antibiotics (A) and in continuous culture systems (B). (PDF 45 kb)

ESM 2

Alpha diversity of bacterial community in continuous culture systems. RS represents the original environmental sample. LIN-G1, SDZ-G1, and ETM-G1 represent the primary generation in LIN, ETM and SDZ systems. LIN-G10, SDZ-G10, and ETM-G10 represent the tenth generation in the LIN, ETM and SDZ systems. (DOCX 24 kb) (PDF 16 kb)

ESM 3

(DOCX 24 kb)

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Zheng, X., Jiang, B., Lang, H. et al. Effects of Antibiotics on Microbial Communities Responsible for Perchlorate Degradation. Water Air Soil Pollut 230, 244 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-019-4302-y

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