Biomarkers of antibiotic resistance genes during seasonal changes in wastewater treatment systems. (March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jiao, Ya-Nan; Zhou, Zhen-Chao; Chen, Tao; Wei, Yuan-Yuan; Zheng, Ji; Gao, Rui-Xia; Chen, Hong
• Is Part Of: Environmental pollution. Volume 234(2018)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 87
• Publication Date: 2018-03
• Subjects: ARGs -- High-throughput qPCR -- LEfSe -- Seasonal changes -- Wastewater treatment plant; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Effets physiologiques -- Périodiques; Pollution; Pollution -- Environmental aspects; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.73
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.11.048
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-7491

Abstract

Abstract: To evaluate the seasonal distribution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and explore the reason for their patterns in different seasons and different systems, two wastewater treatment systems were selected and analyzed using high-throughput qPCR. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) was used to discover the differential ARGs (biomarkers) and estimate the biomarkers' effect size. We found that the total absolute abundances of ARGs in inflows and excess sludge samples had no obvious seasonal fluctuations, while those in winter outflow samples decreased in comparison with the inflow samples. Eleven differentially abundant ARGs (biomarker genes, BmGs) ( aad A5-02, aac -6-II, cml A1-01, cml A1-02, bla OXA10-02, aad A-02, tet X, aad A1, ere A, qac EΔ1-01, and bla TEM) in summer samples and 10 BmGs ( tet -32, tet A-02, aac C2, van C-03, aac -6-I1, tet E, erm B, mef A, tnp A - 07, and sul 2) in winter samples were validated. According to 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the relative abundance of bacteria at the phylum level exhibited significant seasonal changes in outflow water (OW), and biomarker bacteria (BmB) were discovered at the family (or genus) level. Synechococcus and vadinCA02 are BmB in summer, and Trichococcus, Lactococcus, Pelosinus, Janthinobacterium, Nitrosomonadaceae and Sterolibacterium are BmB in winter. In addition, BmB have good correlations with BmGs in the same season, which indicates that bacterial community changes drive different distributions of ARGs during seasonal changes and that LEfSe is an acute and effective method for finding significantly different ARGs and bacteria between two or more classes. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the seasonal changes of BmGs and BmB at two wastewater treatment systems. Graphical abstract: Highlights: Different ARGs (BmGs) were identified in summer and winter using LEfSe analysis. Different BmB were discovered at the family or genera level between different seasons. Bacterial changes drive the different distributions of ARGs during seasonal changes.