Antibiotics Disturb the Microbiome and Increase the Incidence of Resistance Genes in the Gut of a Common Soil Collembolan

Gut microbiota make an important contribution to host health but the effects of environmental pressures on the gut microbiota of soil fauna are largely uncharacterized. Here, we examine the effects of norfloxacin and oxytetracycline on the gut microbiome of the common soil collembolan Folsomia candida and concomitant changes in the incidence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the gut and in growth of the collembolan. Exposure to 10 mg antibiotics kg(-1) for 2 weeks significantly inhibited the growth of the collembolan with roughly a 10-fold decrease in 16S rRNA gene abundance. Antibiotics did alter the composition and structure of the collembolan gut microbiome and decreased the diversity of the gut bacteria. A decline in the firmicutes/bacteroidetes ratio in the antibiotic-treated collembolans may be responsible for the decrease in body weight. Exposure to antibiotics significantly increased the diversity and abundance of ARGs in the collembolan gut. The Mantel test and Procrustes analysis both reveal that ARGs and gut microbiota were significantly correlated with one another (P < 0.05). These results indicate that antibiotics may induce a shift in the gut microbiota of nontarget organisms such as soil collembolans and thereby affect their growth and enrichment of ARGs.