Continental-scale pollution of estuaries with antibiotic resistance genes

Yong-Guan Zhu, Yi Zhao, Bing Li, Chu-Long Huang, Si-Yu Zhang, Shen Yu, Yong-Shan Chen, Tong Zhang, Michael R. Gillings, Jian-Qiang Su

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    950 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have moved from the environmental resistome into human commensals and pathogens, driven by human selection with antimicrobial agents. These genes have increased in abundance in humans and domestic animals, to become common components of waste streams. Estuarine habitats lie between terrestrial/freshwater and marine ecosystems, acting as natural filtering points for pollutants. Here, we have profiled ARGs in sediments from 18 estuaries over 4,000 km of coastal China using high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and investigated their relationship with bacterial communities, antibiotic residues and socio-economic factors. ARGs in estuarine sediments were diverse and abundant, with over 200 different resistance genes being detected, 18 of which were found in all 90 sediment samples. The strong correlations of identified resistance genes with known mobile elements, network analyses and partial redundancy analysis all led to the conclusion that human activity is responsible for the abundance and dissemination of these ARGs. Such widespread pollution with xenogenetic elements has environmental, agricultural and medical consequences.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number16270
    Pages (from-to)16270-1-16270-7
    Number of pages7
    JournalNature Microbiology
    Volume2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 30 Jan 2017

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