Journal
WATER RESEARCH
Volume 212, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118090
Keywords
Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB); Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); Horizontal gene transfer (HGT); Disinfection; Electrochemical flow-through reactor (EFTR)
Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2016YFE0118800]
- Key Technologies R & D program of Tianjin [17PTGCCX00210]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study investigates the effects of ARB disinfection on the risk of HGT, with an electrochemical flow-through reactor (EFTR) being used to inactivate E. coli and remove ARGs. Results show that EFTR effectively reduces ARGs concentration and decreases HGT frequency, making it a promising technology for preventing the spread of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), as emerging pollutants, are released into environment, increasing the risk of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). However, a limited number of studies quantified the effects of ARB disinfection on the HGT risk. This study investigated the inactivation of E. coli 10667 (sul) and the release and removal of ARGs using an electrochemical flow-through reactor (EFTR). Furthermore, the transfer frequencies and potential mechanisms of HGT after disinfection were explored using non-resistant E. coli GMCC 13373 as the recipient and E. coli DH5 alpha carrying plasmid RP4 as the donor. A threshold of current density (0.25 mA/cm(2)) was observed to destroy cells and release intracellular ARGs (iARGs) to increase extracellular ARGs (eARGs) concentration. The further increase in the current density to 1 mA/cm2 resulted in the decline of eARGs concentration due to the higher degradation rate of eARGs than the release rate of iARGs. The performance of ARGs degradation and HGT frequency by EFTR were compared with those of conventional disinfection processes, including chlorination and ultraviolet radiation (UV). A higher ARGs degradation (83.46%) was observed by EFTR compared with that under chlorination (10.23%) and UV (27.07%). Accordingly, EFTR reduced the HGT frequency (0.69) of released ARGs into the recipient (Forward transfer), and the value was lower than that by chlorination (2.69) and UV (1.73). Meanwhile, the surviving injured E. coli 10667 (sul) with increased cell permeability was transferred by plasmid RP4 from the donor (Reverse transfer) with a higher frequency of 0.33 by EFTR compared with that under chlorination (0.26) and UV (0.16). In addition, the sul3 gene was the least resistant to EFTR than sul1 and sul2 gene. These findings provide important insights into the mechanism of HGT between the injured E. coli 10667 (sul) and environmental bacteria. EFTR is a promising disinfection technology for preventing the spread of antibiotic resistance.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available