Suspended particles are hotspots for pathogen-related bacteria and ARGs in coastal beach waters of northern China

Yike He; Mohan Bai; Yaodong He; Suisui Wang; Jiabo Zhang; Sunny Jiang; Guangyi Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153004

Suspended particles are hotspots for pathogen-related bacteria and ARGs in coastal beach waters of northern China

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Apr 15:817:153004. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153004. Epub 2022 Jan 10.

Authors

Yike He¹, Mohan Bai², Yaodong He¹, Suisui Wang¹, Jiabo Zhang³, Sunny Jiang⁴, Guangyi Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Center for Marine Environmental Ecology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
² Center for Marine Environmental Ecology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; College of Life Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
³ The Eighth Geological Brigade, Hebei Geological Prospecting Bureau, Qinhuangdao 066001, China; Marine Ecological Restoration and Smart Ocean Engineering Research Center of Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao 066001, China.
⁴ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
⁵ Center for Marine Environmental Ecology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Qingdao Institute Ocean Engineering of Tianjin University, Qingdao 266237, China. Electronic address: gywang@tju.edu.cn.

PMID: 35026254
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153004

Abstract

Marine suspended particles are unique micro-habitats for diverse microbes and also hotspots of microbially metabolic activities. However, the association of bacterial pathogens, especially those carrying antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), with these particles remain largely unknown in coastal habitats. This study investigated the distribution of pathogen-related bacteria and ARGs in particle-associated (PA) and free-living (FL) fractions of samples collected at three coastal beaches using NextGen sequencing and qPCR. Suspended particles were found to harbor significantly higher abundances of bacteria of pathogen-related genera and ARGs than their counterparts. Functional analysis of microbial community suggested that antibiotic biosynthetic pathways were also more abundant among PA microbiome comparing to FL microbial community, which further facilitated the spread of ARGs. Additionally, 13 pathogen-related genera co-occurred with ARG in PA fraction while only 2 pathogen-related genera co-occurred with ARGs in FL fraction. Overall, our research revealed suspended particles harbored more abundant pathogen-related genera and ARGs comparing with surrounding waters. Thus, suspended particles are hotspots for pathogen-related genera and ARGs and may pose a greater threat to human health in coastal beach.

Keywords: ARGs; Beach; Pathogens; Suspended particles.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents* / pharmacology
Bacteria / genetics
China
Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics
Genes, Bacterial
Humans
Microbiota*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents