Occurrence and possible sources of antibiotic resistance genes in seawater of the South China Sea

doi:10.1007/s11783-024-1868-4

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2024, Vol. 18

Issue (9) : 108 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-024-1868-4

Occurrence and possible sources of antibiotic resistance genes in seawater of the South China Sea

Jian Lu¹, Jun Wu²(

), Cui Zhang¹, Jianhua Wang¹, Xia He³

¹. CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shandong Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, YICCAS, Yantai 264003, China
². Yantai Research Institute, Harbin Engineering University, Yantai 264006, China
³. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541006, China

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Abstract

● The highest absolute abundance of ARGs in seawater reached 2.3 × 10⁴ copies/mL.

● Multidrug resistance genes were major ARGs in seawater of many sites.

● Insertion sequences were the dominant MGEs in seawater.

● Prochlorococcus _MIT9313 and Clade_la were the predominant genus in seawater.

● Anthropogenic activities had important effect on ARGs and MGEs.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) might have great effect on ecological security and human health. Oceans are important reservoirs that receive tremendous amounts of pollutants globally. However, information on the proliferation of ARGs in seawater is still limited. This study performed field sampling to investigate the occurrence and distribution of ARGs in seawater of the South China Sea, which is the deepest and largest sea in China. The results showed that the total absolute abundances of ARGs in seawater samples ranged from 2.1 × 10³ to 2.3 × 10⁴ copies/mL, with an of 5.0 × 10³ copies/mL and a range of 2.2 × 10³–1.8 × 10⁴ copies/mL for those with mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Genes resistant to multidrug, aminoglycoside, tetracycline, and fluoroquinolone antibiotics accounted for 77.3%–88.6% of total ARGs in seawater. Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria represented 32.1%–56.2% and 30.4%–49.5% of microbial community, respectively. Prochlorococcus_MIT9313 and Clade_la were the prevalent genera in seawater of the South China Sea. Complex co-occurrence relationship existed among ARGs, MGEs, and bacteria. Anthropogenic activities had critical influence on ARGs and MGEs. Hospital wastewater, wastewater treatment plant effluent, sewage, aquaculture tailwater, and runoff were determined as the important sources of ARGs in seawater of the South China Sea based on positive matrix factorization analysis.

Keywords The South China Sea Antibiotic resistance genes Mobile genetic element Source apportionment

Corresponding Author(s): Jun Wu

Issue Date: 21 June 2024

Cite this article:

Jian Lu,Jun Wu,Cui Zhang, et al. Occurrence and possible sources of antibiotic resistance genes in seawater of the South China Sea[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2024, 18(9): 108.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-024-1868-4
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2024/V18/I9/108

Fig.1 Absolute abundances of ARGs (a) and MGEs (b) in seawater of the South China Sea.

Fig.2 Absolute abundances (a) and relative abundances (b) of detected gene subtypes in seawater of the South China Sea.

Fig.3 Phylum-level-based bar plot (a), genus-level-based Circos diagram (b), phylum-level-based PCoA diagram (c), and genus-level-based PLS-DA diagram (d) of microbial community in seawater of the South China Sea.

Fig.4 Redundancy analysis (a) and SEM-PLS analysis (b) based on microorganisms, ARGs, MGEs, and water quality.

Fig.5 Correlation network among ARGs, MGEs, and bacteria on type/phylum level (a) and subtype/genus level (b). Red/blue line represents positive/negative correlation.

Fig.6 Possible sources of ARGs in seawater of the South China Sea based on PMF analysis.

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