Rhizosphere suppression hinders antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) spread under bacterial invasion

Yuchan Li; Xuhui Deng; Na Zhang; Zongzhuan Shen; Rong Li; Qirong Shen; Joana Falcao Salles

doi:10.1016/j.onehlt.2023.100481

Rhizosphere suppression hinders antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) spread under bacterial invasion

One Health. 2023 Jan 2:16:100481. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2023.100481. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Yuchan Li¹, Xuhui Deng^{1

2}, Na Zhang¹, Zongzhuan Shen^{1

2}, Rong Li^{1

2}, Qirong Shen¹, Joana Falcao Salles³

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab of Solid Organic Waste Utilization, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, Jiangsu, China.
² Sanya Institute of Nanjing Agricultural University, Sanya 572025, Hainan, China.
³ Microbial Ecology Cluster, Genomics Research in Ecology and Evolution in Nature, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen 9747AG, the Netherlands.

Abstract

The rhizosphere is an extremely important component of the "one health" scenario by linking the soil microbiome and plants, in which the potential enrichment of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) might ultimately flow into the human food chain. Despite the increased occurrence of soil-borne diseases, which can lead to increased use of pesticides and antibiotic-producing biocontrol agents, the understanding of the dynamics of ARG spread in the rhizosphere is largely overlooked. Here, tomato seedlings grown in soils conducive and suppressive to the pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum were selected as a model to investigate ARG spread in the rhizosphere with and without pathogen invasion. Metagenomics data revealed that R. solanacearum invasion increased the density of ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Although we found ARGs originating from human pathogenic bacteria in both soils, the enrichment was alleviated in the suppressive soil. In summary, the suppressive soil hindered ARG spread through pathogen suppression and had a lower number of taxa carrying antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); Bacterial pathogen; Conducive soil; Invasion; Suppressive soil.