Abstract
Microbial indicators are often used to monitor microbial safety of aquatic environments. However, information regarding the correlation between microbial indicators and ecotoxicological factors such as potential pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in anthropogenically impacted waters remains highly limited. Here, we investigated the bacterial community composition, potential pathogens, ARGs diversity, ARG hosts, and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) potential in urban river and wastewater samples from Chaohu Lake Basin using 16S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing. The composition of the microbial community and potential pathogens differed significantly in wastewater and river water samples, and the total relative abundance of fecal indicator bacteria was positively correlated with the total relative abundance of potential pathogens (p < 0.001 and Pearson’s r = 0.758). Network analysis indicated that partial ARG subtypes such as dfrE, sul2, and PmrE were significantly correlated with indicator bacteria (p < 0.05 and Pearson’s r > 0.6). Notably, Klebsiella was the indicator bacteria significantly correlated with 4 potential pathogens and 14 ARG subtypes. ARGs coexisting with mobile gene elements were mainly found in Thauera, Pseudomonas, Escherichia, and Acinetobacter. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) can be used to conduct preliminary surveys of environmental samples to access potential health risks, thereby facilitating water resources management.
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Data availability
The original sequencing data has been uploaded to NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA), study accession number: PRJNA672794.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province for supporting the high-throughput sequencing. The collection of the experimental samples was supported by Integration and Demonstration of Quality and Safety Control Technology for Green Ecological Livestock and Poultry Products Industry Chain. We thank International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) for editing this manuscript.
Funding
This study was supported by the University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province (Grant No. GXXT-2019-035) and Integration and Demonstration of Quality and Safety Control Technology for Green Ecological Livestock and Poultry Products Industry Chain (1604a0702033).
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KZQ and YS conceived the idea. ZQ, YS, and XJS collected the samples. XLZ, HH, and JT analyzed and interpreted the data. XLZ wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study was performed in accordance with the Chinese Laboratory Animal Administration Act of 1988. Before experiments, the research protocol was reviewed and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Anhui Agricultural University. Permission was obtained from all managers on study farms before sampling.
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Zhao, XL., Qi, Z., Huang, H. et al. Coexistence of antibiotic resistance genes, fecal bacteria, and potential pathogens in anthropogenically impacted water. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 46977–46990 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19175-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19175-1