The fate of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) from livestock wastewater (dominated by quinolone antibiotics) treated by microbial fuel cell (MFC)

Jia Chen; Tingting Wang; Ke Zhang; Hongbing Luo; Wei Chen; You Mo; Zhaolan Wei

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112267

The fate of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) from livestock wastewater (dominated by quinolone antibiotics) treated by microbial fuel cell (MFC)

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2021 Apr 28:218:112267. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112267. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jia Chen¹, Tingting Wang¹, Ke Zhang², Hongbing Luo¹, Wei Chen¹, You Mo¹, Zhaolan Wei¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Civil Engineering, Sichuan Agricultural University, Dujiangyan 611830, PR China.
² College of Civil Engineering, Sichuan Agricultural University, Dujiangyan 611830, PR China; School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, Heilongjiang, PR China. Electronic address: zhangke@sicau.edu.cn.

PMID: 33932652
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112267

Abstract

The removal characteristics of antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements from livestock wastewater (dominated by quinolone antibiotics) treated with MFC were evaluated by High-throughput quantitative (HT-qPCR). The results showed that 144 ARGs and 8 MEGs were detected in the livestock wastewater. After MFC treatment, the number of AGRs decreased as a whole, and the relative abundance of macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin group B (MLSB) and aminoglycosider decreased by 62.7% and 92.9%, respectively. MGEs decreased by 57.3% and multidrug genes decreased by 90%. After MFC treatment, the absolute abundance of tetracycline in raw sewage decreased by two orders of magnitude from 5.8 × 10⁵ copies L^-1 to 5.1.× 10³ copies L^-1. However, MFC was less efficient in the removal of vancomycin and beta-lactamase genes. It was also found that chloramphenicol resistance genes slightly increased. Illumina sequencing showed that Syntrophobacterales and Synergistales were predominant in MFCs. Desulfovibrio was resistant to high concentration of moxifloxacin hydrochloride. The removal efficiency of MFC for moxifloxacin hydrochloride at a concentration of 5 mg L^-1 was 86.55%. The maximum power density and coulomb efficiency were 109.3 mV·cm^-3 and 41.97%, respectively. With the increase of antibiotic concentration, the sewage treatment efficiency and electrical performance were inhibited. This study shows that untreated livestock wastewater had a great risk of gene horizontal transfer. Although MFC had limited treatment capacity for high-concentration quinolone wastewater, it is an effective method to reduce ARGs and the risk of horizontal gene transfer.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); High-throughput quantitative PCR; MFC; Mobile genetic elements (MGEs); Quinolone (moxifloxacin hydrochloride).