Antibiotics and their associations with antibiotic resistance genes and microbial communities in estuarine and coastal sediment of Quanzhou Bay, Southeast China

Yongshan Chen; Yue Lu; Jinghua Xu; Ying Feng; Xiaofeng Li

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115539

Antibiotics and their associations with antibiotic resistance genes and microbial communities in estuarine and coastal sediment of Quanzhou Bay, Southeast China

Mar Pollut Bull. 2023 Oct:195:115539. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115539. Epub 2023 Sep 13.

Authors

Yongshan Chen¹, Yue Lu², Jinghua Xu³, Ying Feng³, Xiaofeng Li²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Rural Environmental Remediation and Waste Recycling (Quanzhou Normal University), Fujian Province University, 362000, Quanzhou 362000, PR China; School of Resource and Environmental Science, Quanzhou Normal University, Quanzhou 362000, PR China. Electronic address: yshchen421@163.com.
² School of Resource and Environmental Science, Quanzhou Normal University, Quanzhou 362000, PR China.
³ Key Laboratory of Rural Environmental Remediation and Waste Recycling (Quanzhou Normal University), Fujian Province University, 362000, Quanzhou 362000, PR China; School of Resource and Environmental Science, Quanzhou Normal University, Quanzhou 362000, PR China.

PMID: 37714074
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115539

Abstract

The antibiotic concentrations spanned from 11.2 to 173.8 ng/g, with quinolones and tetracyclines being observed to be prevalent. The amount of microbial biomass as determined by Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) ranged from 2.92 to 10.99 mg kg^-1, with G- bacteria dominating. A total of 254 distinct ARGs and 10 MEGs were identified, with multidrug ARGs having the highest relative abundance (1.18 × 10^-2 to 3.00 × 10^-1 copies/16S rRNA gene copies), while vancomycin and sulfonamide resistance genes were the least abundant. Results from canonical-correlation analyses combined with redundancy analysis indicated that macrolides were significantly related to the shifts of microbial community structure in sediments, particularly in G+ bacteria that were more sensitive to antibiotic residues. It was observed that sulfonamide ARGs had a greater correlation with residual antibiotics than other ARGs. This study provided a field evidence that multiple residual antibiotics from coastal sites could cause fundamental shifts in microbial community and their associated ARGs.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes; Antibiotics; Microbial community; PLFAs; Quanzhou Bay; Sediment.