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Exposure to vancomycin causes a shift in the microbial community structure without affecting nitrate reduction rates in river sediments

  • Microbial Ecology of the Continental and Coastal Environments
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Abstract

Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes have shown to be omnipresent in the environment. In this study, we investigated the effect of vancomycin (VA) on denitrifying bacteria in river sediments of a Waste Water Treatment Plant, receiving both domestic and hospital waste. We exposed these sediments continuously in flow-through reactors to different VA concentrations under denitrifying conditions (nitrate addition and anoxia) in order to determine potential nitrate reduction rates and changes in sedimentary microbial community structures. The presence of VA had no effect on sedimentary nitrate reduction rates at environmental concentrations, whereas a change in bacterial (16S rDNA) and denitrifying (nosZ) community structures was observed (determined by polymerase chain reaction–denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis). The bacterial and denitrifying community structure within the sediment changed upon VA exposure indicating a selection of a non-susceptible VA population.

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Acknowledgments

The authors like to thank Benjamin Mercier, Olivier Tronquart for assistance in the field, Tuc Dinh, Fabrice Alliot for the help during antibiotic analysis. This work was financed by the Region Ile de France (RD2S project 2009-07), the program Piren Seine and EC2CO FLASH CNRS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Rennes 1, CNRS EcoBio UMR6553, Rennes, France

    Anniet M. Laverman

  2. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7619 Metis, 75005, Paris, France

    Thibaut Cazier, Chen Yan, Céline Roose-Amsaleg & Josette Garnier

  3. CNRS, UMR 7619 Metis, 75005 Cedex 05, Paris, France

    Céline Roose-Amsaleg & Josette Garnier

  4. Normandie Université, UMR 6143 M2C, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan Cedex, Paris, France

    Fabienne Petit & Thierry Berthe

  5. CNRS, UMR 6143 M2C, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan Cedex, Paris, France

    Fabienne Petit & Thierry Berthe

  6. Normandie Université, SFR SCALE, 76821 Mont-Saint-Aignan Cedex, Paris, France

    Fabienne Petit & Thierry Berthe

Authors
  1. Anniet M. Laverman
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  2. Thibaut Cazier
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  3. Chen Yan
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  4. Céline Roose-Amsaleg
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  5. Fabienne Petit
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  6. Josette Garnier
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  7. Thierry Berthe
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Correspondence to Anniet M. Laverman.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Laverman, A.M., Cazier, T., Yan, C. et al. Exposure to vancomycin causes a shift in the microbial community structure without affecting nitrate reduction rates in river sediments. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 13702–13709 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4159-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4159-6

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