Addition of nanoparticles increases the abundance of mobile genetic elements and changes microbial community in the sludge anaerobic digestion system

Yanru Zhang; Rui Xu; Yinping Xiang; Yue Lu; Meiying Jia; Jing Huang; Zhengyong Xu; Jiao Cao; Weiping Xiong; Zhaohui Yang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124206

Addition of nanoparticles increases the abundance of mobile genetic elements and changes microbial community in the sludge anaerobic digestion system

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Mar 5:405:124206. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124206. Epub 2020 Oct 8.

Authors

Yanru Zhang¹, Rui Xu², Yinping Xiang¹, Yue Lu¹, Meiying Jia¹, Jing Huang³, Zhengyong Xu⁴, Jiao Cao¹, Weiping Xiong⁵, Zhaohui Yang⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China.
² Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-environmental Pollution Control and Management, Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental Science Technology, Guangzhou 510650, PR China; National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangzhou 510650, PR China.
³ Hunan Academy of Forestry and State Key Laboratory of Utilization of Woody Oil Resource, Changsha 410004, PR China.
⁴ Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Affairs Center, Changsha 410013, PR China.
⁵ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China. Electronic address: xiongweiping@hnu.edu.cn.
⁶ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha 410082, PR China. Electronic address: yzh@hnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33535360
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124206

Abstract

This study explored the fate of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in anaerobic digestion (AD) system with four nanoparticles (NPs) added, including carbon NPs, Al₂O₃ NPs, ZnO NPs, and CuO NPs. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and quantitative PCR to investigate the microbial community, MGEs abundance and the potential host in the AD process. The results of high-throughput sequencing showed that ZnO NPs and CuO NPs significantly reduced the microbial diversity and significantly changed the microbial community structure. Simultaneously, the absolute abundance of MGEs increased by 145.01%, 159.67%, 354.70%, and 132.80% on the carbon NPs, Al₂O₃ NPs, ZnO NPs, and CuO NPs. The enrichment rate of tnpA-03 in ZnO NPs group was the highest, which could reach up to 2854.80%. Co-occurrence analysis revealed that Proteobacteria harbored the vast majority of MGEs followed by Firmicutes. Redundancy analysis and variation partitioning analysis showed that metabolites were the main factors that shifted the succession of bacterial communities. Moreover, there were significant positive correlations between metabolites and part MGEs (such as tnpA-01, tnpA-02, tnpA-03, tnpA-04, tnpA-05, tnpA-07 and ISCR1). This study provides a new perspective that NPs increase the risk of antibiotic resistance through MGEs during AD process.

Keywords: Mesophilic anaerobic digestion; Mobile genetic elements; Nanoparticles; Potential host.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Genes, Bacterial
Interspersed Repetitive Sequences
Microbiota* / genetics
Nanoparticles*
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Sewage

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Sewage