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Characterization of Antibiotic-Resistance Genes in Antibiotic Resistance Escherichia coli Isolates From a Lake

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Abstract

The spread of antibiotic-resistance bacteria and antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs) has been of concern worldwide. In this study, 114 Escherichia coli isolates were isolated from surface water samples of a lake to identify their susceptibility to antibiotics, including tetracycline (TC), gentamicin (GN), ampicillin (AMP), streptomycin (ST), oxytetracycline (OC), levofloxacin (LEV), nalidixic acid (NA), and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (SFT). Isolates showing resistance to TC, GN, AMP, ST, OC, LEV, NA, and SFT occurred in 50, 76, 68, 71, 55, 32, 82, and 85 % of the total isolates, respectively. Thirty-seven different resistance patterns were identified, and the most abundant resistance profile (28 of 104) was TC/GN/AMP/ST/OC/LEV/NA/SFT. The occurrence of 29 ARGs were detected in their corresponding resistance clones, and 88 % of TC-resistance, 94 % of SFT-resistance, 90 % of AMP-resistance, 78 % of ST-resistance, and 72 % of quinolone-resistance clones can be described by their corresponding ARGs. It should be noted that most of these antibiotic-resistance clones harbored at least two corresponding ARGs, indicating that high frequencies of combined ARGs occurred in these isolates. In addition, 9 new types of DNA sequence of qnr(B) gene were obtained and were clustered into the same group as showed by phylogenetic trees analysis. These results suggest that the development of antibiotic resistance can be ascribed to the high frequency in the recombination of ARGs through horizontal gene transfer.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for grants from the National Program (973 Program) on Key Basic Research Project (Grant No. 2010CB429006), the National Natural Science Foundation (Key Program) of China (Grant No. 50830304), the Nonprofit Industry Financial Program of the Ministry of Water Resources (Grant No. 201101020), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK2012413), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University (Grant No. 2012B06314).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, Xikang Road No. 1, Gulou District, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Chao Wang, XiuCong Gu, Songhe Zhang, Peifang Wang, Chuan Guo, Ju Gu & Jun Hou

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  1. Chao Wang
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  2. XiuCong Gu
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  3. Songhe Zhang
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  4. Peifang Wang
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Correspondence to Songhe Zhang.

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Wang, C., Gu, X., Zhang, S. et al. Characterization of Antibiotic-Resistance Genes in Antibiotic Resistance Escherichia coli Isolates From a Lake. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 65, 635–641 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-013-9932-2

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