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Antibiotic Resistance in Pseudomonas spp. Through the Urban Water Cycle

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Abstract

Selection and dissemination of resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) require a deeper understanding since antibiotics are permanently released to the environment. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the phenotypic resistance of 499 isolates of Pseudomonas spp. from urban water sources, and the prevalence of 20 ARGs within those isolates. Resistance to penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems, quinolones, macrolides, and tetracyclines was mainly observed in the hospital effluent, municipal wastewater and river water downstream the city. Resistant strains were frequently identified as P. aeruginosa and P. putida. P. aeruginosa isolates were mostly resistant to cefepime, ceftazidime, imipenem, and gentamycin, while P. putida strains were especially resistant to piperacillin-tazobactam. ARGs such as blaTEM-1, blaSHV-1, blaPER-1, blaAmpC, blaVIM-1, PstS, qnrA, qnrB, ermB, tetA, tetB and tetC have been detected. The blaAmpC gene was found in P. aeruginosa, while blaTEM-1 and blaPER-1 genes were found in P. putida. Class 1 integron integrase gene was found in 6.81% of the Pseudomonas isolates.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the EnviroAMR project, Grant Number 471, 3499/20.05.2015, financed through the EEA 2009-2014 Financial Mechanism under the RO04 472 program—Reduction of hazardous substances, the Core programme and the Grant of the Ministry of Research and Innovation, Contract No. 22PFE / 2018. ES was also supported through the Core programme PN2019–2022 - BIODIVERS 3, Grant 25 N/2019 - BIOSERV.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Biology and Geology, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Babeş-Bolyai University, M. Kogalniceanu str., No 1, 400084, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Anca Butiuc-Keul, Rahela Carpa, Dorina Podar, Vasile Muntean, Dumitrana Iordache & Anca Farkas

  2. Center for Systems Biology, Biodiversity and Bioresources, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Anca Butiuc-Keul, Rahela Carpa, Dorina Podar, Vasile Muntean, Dumitrana Iordache & Anca Farkas

  3. Institute of Biological Research, National Institute for Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Edina Szekeres

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  1. Anca Butiuc-Keul
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Contributions

ABK: conception and design of the study, ARG analysis, and manuscript writing. AF: conception and design of the study, water sampling, bacterial isolation and microbiological testing, phenotypic analysis of bacterial resistance, statistical analysis, and manuscript editing. RC: antimicrobial susceptibility testing. DP: validation of ARG sequences, bioinformatics analysis. ES: molecular identification of isolates, validation of 16S rRNA sequences, bioinformatics analysis. VM: water sampling, antimicrobial susceptibility testing. DI: validation of ARG sequences, bioinformatic analysis.

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Correspondence to Anca Farkas.

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Butiuc-Keul, A., Carpa, R., Podar, D. et al. Antibiotic Resistance in Pseudomonas spp. Through the Urban Water Cycle. Curr Microbiol 78, 1227–1237 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-021-02389-w

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