Inhibition of methanogens decreased sulfadiazine removal and increased antibiotic resistance gene development in microbial fuel cells

Shuai Zhang; Hai-Liang Song; Xian Cao; Hua Li; Jianhua Guo; Xiao-Li Yang; Rajendra Prasad Singh; Shuai Liu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2019.02.089

Inhibition of methanogens decreased sulfadiazine removal and increased antibiotic resistance gene development in microbial fuel cells

Bioresour Technol. 2019 Jun:281:188-194. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.02.089. Epub 2019 Feb 20.

Authors

Shuai Zhang¹, Hai-Liang Song², Xian Cao³, Hua Li⁴, Jianhua Guo⁵, Xiao-Li Yang⁶, Rajendra Prasad Singh⁷, Shuai Liu⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China; Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: zhangshuai198702@163.com.
² School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Jiangsu Engineering Lab of Water and Soil Eco-remediation, Wenyuan Road 1, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: hlsong@njnu.edu.cn.
³ School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba Aramaki 6-6-06, Sendai 980-8579, Japan. Electronic address: cao.xian.c6@tohoku.ac.jp.
⁴ School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China. Electronic address: lihua20170305@163.com.
⁵ Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: j.guo@awmc.uq.edu.au.
⁶ School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China. Electronic address: yangxiaoli@seu.edu.cn.
⁷ School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China. Electronic address: rajupsc@seu.edu.cn.
⁸ Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong Province 266042, PR China. Electronic address: liushuai@qust.edu.cn.

PMID: 30822639
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.02.089

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study sulfadiazine (SDZ) biodegradation efficiency, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) development and shift of microbial communities under conditions of limited methanogens activity in Microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The results indicated that the removal performance of SDZ was decreased with the suppression of methanogens in both MFCs and open-circuit controls. The relative abundances of ARGs were even enhanced by the inhibition of methanogens. The biodegradation mechanism of SDZ was obtained, in which SDZ was initially divided into aniline and pyrimidin-2ylsulfamic acid, then converted into small molecules. Geobacter was found as the dominant microorganism, indicating its potential to degrade SDZ in the MFCs. These findings suggest there is a trade-off between electricity production and SDZ removal and ARG development by the mean of methanogen inhibition in MFCs.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes; Antibiotics; Microbial fuel cells; Sulfadiazine degradation.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
Bioelectric Energy Sources*
Drug Resistance, Bacterial*
Electricity
Geobacter / drug effects
Geobacter / metabolism*
Methane / metabolism
Sulfadiazine / metabolism*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Sulfadiazine
Methane