Contrasting dynamics of manure-borne antibiotic resistance genes in different soils

Houpu Zhang; Hong Ling; Ruofei Zhou; Jun Tang; Rimao Hua; Xiangwei Wu

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114162

Contrasting dynamics of manure-borne antibiotic resistance genes in different soils

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Nov:246:114162. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114162. Epub 2022 Oct 14.

Authors

Houpu Zhang¹, Hong Ling², Ruofei Zhou², Jun Tang¹, Rimao Hua¹, Xiangwei Wu³

Affiliations

¹ College of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Agri-food Safety of Anhui Province, Hefei 230036, China; Research Academy of Green Development of Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China.
² College of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Agri-food Safety of Anhui Province, Hefei 230036, China.
³ College of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Agri-food Safety of Anhui Province, Hefei 230036, China; Research Academy of Green Development of Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China. Electronic address: wxw@ahau.edu.cn.

PMID: 36252512
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114162

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are important biological contamination factors in soil systems, posing direct or indirect threats to soil health, food safety and human health. The ubiquitous pollution of ARGs is usually implicated with the application of organic manures in agricultural soil ecosystem. However, little is known about the transmission and fate of ARGs after manure input concerning different soils. Herein, the transmission potential and temporal dynamics of manure-associated ARGs was characterized with three different agricultural soils collected from Jiangxi (JX), Zhejiang (ZJ), and Jilin (JL), respectively. The results show that manure input did not affect the total abundance of ARGs in the receiving soils, but remarkedly alter the compositions of ARGs in soils. The manure-associated ARGs were significantly enriched in the manure-amended soils, including genes conferring resistance to sulfonamide, aminoglycoside, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim with the fold of 1.97 - 27.86. Variance partitioning analysis showed that the major variances of ARG community was explained by mobile genetic elements and bacterial profile (> 76%) but not the concentrations of heavy metals and antibiotics. Furthermore, 31, 37, and 38 ARG subtypes were identified as the potential extrinsic ARGs derived from manures in the JX, ZJ, and JL soils, respectively, including 13 shared ARG subtypes. It was also found that the manure-associated ARGs (aadA, sul1, sul2, tetC, and tetG) declined with the incubation time in the JX and ZJ soils, whereas they firstly decreased and then increased in the JL soil. The abundance of these five ARGs in the JL soil was significantly higher than that in the JX and ZJ soils. Collectively, this finding revealed that soil type was responsible for the transmission and fate of manure-associated ARGs in agroecosystem.

Keywords: Agricultural soil; Antibiotic resistance genes; Manure; Temporal dynamic; Transmission potential.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics
Ecosystem
Genes, Bacterial
Humans
Manure* / microbiology
Soil Microbiology
Soil*

Substances

Manure
Soil
Anti-Bacterial Agents