The increased antibiotic resistance among microorganisms
has resulted into growing interest for investigating the wastewater
treatment plants (WWTPs) as they are reported to be
the major source in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance
genes (ARGs) and heavy metal resistance genes (HMRGs)
in the environment. In this study, we investigated the prevalence
and persistence of ARGs and HMRGs as well as bacterial
diversity and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in influent
and effluent at the WWTP in Gwangju, South Korea,
using high-throughput sequencing based metagenomic approach.
A good number of broad-spectrum of resistance
genes (both ARG and HMRG) were prevalent and likely
persistent, although large portion of them were successfully
removed at the wastewater treatment process. The relative
abundance of ARGs and MGEs was higher in effluent as compared
to that of influent. Our results suggest that the resistance
genes with high abundance and bacteria harbouring
ARGs and MGEs are likely to persist more through the treatment
process. On analyzing the microbial community, the
phylum Proteobacteria, especially potentially pathogenic species
belonging to the genus Acinetobacter, dominated in
WWTP. Overall, our study demonstrates that many ARGs
and HMRGs may persist the treatment processes in WWTPs
and their association to MGEs may contribute to the dissemination
of resistance genes among microorganisms in the
environment.
Citations
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