Long-term field application of sewage sludge increases the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in soil.

By Qinglin Chen, Xinli An, Hu Li, Jianqiang Su, Yibing Ma, Yong-guan Zhu. Environment International, 2016

744 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Sewage sludge and manure are common soil amendments in crop production; however, their impact on the abundance and diversity of the antibiotic resistome in soil remains elusive. In this study, by using high-throughput sequencing and high-throughput quantitative PCR, the patterns of bacterial community and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in a long-term field experiment were investigated to gain insights into these impacts. A total of 130 unique ARGs and 5 mobile genetic elements (MGEs) were detected and the long-term application of sewage sludge and chicken manure significantly increased the abundance and diversity of ARGs in the soil. Genes conferring resistance to beta-lactams, tetracyclines, and multiple drugs were dominant in the samples. Sewage sludge or chicken manure applications caused significant enrichment of 108 unique ARGs and MGEs with a maximum enrichment of up to 3845 folds for mexF. The enrichment of MGEs suggested that the application of sewage sludge or manure may accelerate the dissemination of ARGs in soil through horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Based on the co-occurrence pattern of ARGs subtypes revealed by network analysis, aacC, oprD and mphA-02, were proposed to be potential indicators for quantitative estimation of the co-occurring ARGs subtypes abundance by power functions. The application of sewage sludge and manure resulted in significant increase of bacterial diversity in soil, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi were the dominant phyla (>10% in each sample). Five bacterial phyla (Chloroflexi, Planctomycetes, Firmicutes, Gemmatimonadetes and Bacteroidetes) were found to be significantly correlated with the ARGs in soil. Mantel test and variation partitioning analysis (VPA) suggested that bacterial community shifts, rather than MGEs, is the major driver shaping the antibiotic resistome. Additionally, the co-occurrence pattern between ARGs and microbial taxa revealed by network analysis indicated that four bacterial families might be potential hosts of ARGs. These results may shed light on the mechanism underlining the effects of amendments of sewage sludge or manure on the occurrence and dissemination of ARGs in soil.

Subfields: Molecular Medicine, Pollution, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b185041c6468e325a0d1e18b132d14318b3ef8d8

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Molecular Medicine

1. Qing‐Lin Chen
2. Xinli An
3. Yong-guan Zhu
4. Jianqiang Su
5. Li Cui
6. G. Ying
7. M. Qiao
8. A. Singer

In Pollution

1. Ji‐Zheng He
2. Qing‐Lin Chen
3. Hangwei Hu
4. Xinli An
5. Yong-guan Zhu
6. Jianqiang Su
7. Li Cui
8. G. Ying

Citations in the corpus

• Rare microbial taxa as the major drivers of ecosystem multifunctionality in long-term fertilized soils (2020, background): “manure, sewage sludge, compost) can contribute to the distribution and spread of antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria, antibiotic resistance genes, pathogens as well as the accumulation of heavy metals (Chen et al., 2016; Sims and Kline, 1991).”
• Review of antibiotic resistance in China and its environment. (2018, positive): “Many studies reported a noticeable increase in ARGs diversity and abundance in soils that received long-term applications of livestock manure (Chen et al., 2016; Cheng et al., 2016; Ji et al., 2012; Mu et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2014d; Wu et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2015d; Zhou et al., 2017).”
• Do manure-borne or indigenous soil microorganisms influence the spread of antibiotic resistance genes in manured soil? (2017, methodology): “Manure application has also been demonstrated to increases the occurrence and spread of ARGs in soils (Binh et al., 2008; Zhu et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2016).”
• Potential Benefits and Risks for Soil Health Derived From the Use of Organic Amendments in Agriculture (2019, background): “Some organic amendments, particularly those derived from raw, unstable animal by-products or biosolids, can contain potentially pathogenic organisms [151,152], including enteric bacteria, parasites, viruses, and fungi [149].”
• Antibiotic resistome in the livestock and aquaculture industries: Status and solutions (2020, background): “In some cases, the treated aquaculture effluents are used in irrigation for crops or urban parks, together with the land application of aquaculture sludge as organic fertilizer, therefore provides a pathway for ARGs from animals to soils and crops, which potentially impact downstream occupational wo”