Spatiotemporal distributions of sulfonamide and tetracycline resistance genes and microbial communities in the coastal areas of the Yangtze River Estuary

Shuguang Liu; Qiuhong Xu; Sha Lou; Junbiao Tu; Wenjun Yin; Xin Li; Yuchen Jin; Larisa Dorzhievna Radnaeva; Elena Nikitina; Aleksei Nikolavich Makhinov; José Tavares Araruna; Irina Viktorovna Fedorova

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115025

Spatiotemporal distributions of sulfonamide and tetracycline resistance genes and microbial communities in the coastal areas of the Yangtze River Estuary

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2023 Jul 1:259:115025. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115025. Epub 2023 May 20.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hydraulic Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China; Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Hydraulic Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Hydraulic Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China; Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: lousha@tongji.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Laboratory of Chemistry of Natural Systems, Baikal Institute of Nature Management of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Republic of Buryatia, Russian Republic, Russia.
⁷ Institute of Water and Ecology Problems, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Khabarovsk, Russia.
⁸ Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁹ Institute of Earth Sciences, Saint Petersburg State University, 7-9 Universitetskaya Embankment, St Petersburg, Russia.

PMID: 37216861
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115025

Abstract

In this paper, water and sediments were sampled at eight monitoring stations in the coastal areas of the Yangtze River Estuary in summer and autumn 2021. Two sulfonamide resistance genes (sul1 and sul2), six tetracycline resistance genes (tetM, tetC, tetX, tetA, tetO, and tetQ), one integrase gene (intI1), 16 S rRNA genes, and microbial communities were examined and analyzed. Most resistance genes showed relatively higher abundance in summer and lower abundance in autumn. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant seasonal variation of some ARGs (7 ARGs in water and 6 ARGs in sediment). River runoff and WWTPs are proven to be the major sources of resistance genes along the Yangtze River Estuary. Significant and positive correlations between intI1 and other ARGs were found in water samples (P < 0.05), implying that intI1 may influence the spread and propagation of resistance genes in aquatic environments. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum along the Yangtze River Estuary, with an average proportion of 41.7%. Redundancy analysis indicated that the ARGs were greatly affected by temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH in estuarine environments. Network analysis showed that Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria were the potential host phyla for ARGs in the coastal areas of the Yangtze River Estuary.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes; Coastal areas of Yangtze River Estuary; Microbial communities; Spatiotemporal distribution.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / analysis
China
Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics
Environmental Monitoring
Estuaries*
Genes, Bacterial
Microbiota* / genetics
Rivers / microbiology
Sulfanilamide
Sulfonamides / analysis
Tetracycline / analysis
Tetracycline Resistance / genetics
Water / analysis

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Tetracycline
Sulfanilamide
Sulfonamides
Water