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Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers
Background: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are microbial factories aimed to reduce the amount of nutrients and pathogenic microorganisms in the treated wastewater before its discharge into the environment. We studied the impact of urban WWTP effluents on the abundance of antibiotic resistance g...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557954/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32962009 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186813 |
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author | Pantanella, Fabrizio Lekunberri, Itziar Gagliardi, Antonella Venuto, Giuseppe Sànchez-Melsió, Alexandre Fabiani, Massimo Balcázar, José Luis Schippa, Serena De Giusti, Maria Borrego, Carles Solimini, Angelo |
author_facet | Pantanella, Fabrizio Lekunberri, Itziar Gagliardi, Antonella Venuto, Giuseppe Sànchez-Melsió, Alexandre Fabiani, Massimo Balcázar, José Luis Schippa, Serena De Giusti, Maria Borrego, Carles Solimini, Angelo |
author_sort | Pantanella, Fabrizio |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are microbial factories aimed to reduce the amount of nutrients and pathogenic microorganisms in the treated wastewater before its discharge into the environment. We studied the impact of urban WWTP effluents on the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli (AR-E. coli) in the last stretch of two rivers (Arrone and Tiber) in Central Italy that differ in size and flow volume. Methods: Water samples were collected in three seasons upstream and downstream of the WWTP, at the WWTP outlet, and at sea sites near the river mouth, and analyzed for the abundance of ARGs by qPCR and AR-E. coli using cultivation followed by disk diffusion assays. Results: For all studied genes (16S rRNA, intI1, sul1, ermB, blaTEM, tetW and qnrS), absolute concentrations were significantly higher in the Tiber than in the Arrone at all sampling sites, despite their collection date, but the prevalence of target ARGs within bacterial communities in both rivers was similar. The absolute concentrations of most ARGs were also generally higher in the WWTP effluent with median levels between log 4 and log 6 copies per ml but did not show differences along the studied stretches of rivers. Statistically significant site effect was found for E. coli phenotypic resistance to tetracycline and ciprofloxacin in the Arrone but not in the Tiber. Conclusions: In both rivers, diffuse or point pollution sources other than the studied WWTP effluents may account for the observed resistance pattern, although the Arrone appears as more sensitive to the wastewater impact considering its lower flow volume. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7557954 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75579542020-10-22 Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers Pantanella, Fabrizio Lekunberri, Itziar Gagliardi, Antonella Venuto, Giuseppe Sànchez-Melsió, Alexandre Fabiani, Massimo Balcázar, José Luis Schippa, Serena De Giusti, Maria Borrego, Carles Solimini, Angelo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are microbial factories aimed to reduce the amount of nutrients and pathogenic microorganisms in the treated wastewater before its discharge into the environment. We studied the impact of urban WWTP effluents on the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli (AR-E. coli) in the last stretch of two rivers (Arrone and Tiber) in Central Italy that differ in size and flow volume. Methods: Water samples were collected in three seasons upstream and downstream of the WWTP, at the WWTP outlet, and at sea sites near the river mouth, and analyzed for the abundance of ARGs by qPCR and AR-E. coli using cultivation followed by disk diffusion assays. Results: For all studied genes (16S rRNA, intI1, sul1, ermB, blaTEM, tetW and qnrS), absolute concentrations were significantly higher in the Tiber than in the Arrone at all sampling sites, despite their collection date, but the prevalence of target ARGs within bacterial communities in both rivers was similar. The absolute concentrations of most ARGs were also generally higher in the WWTP effluent with median levels between log 4 and log 6 copies per ml but did not show differences along the studied stretches of rivers. Statistically significant site effect was found for E. coli phenotypic resistance to tetracycline and ciprofloxacin in the Arrone but not in the Tiber. Conclusions: In both rivers, diffuse or point pollution sources other than the studied WWTP effluents may account for the observed resistance pattern, although the Arrone appears as more sensitive to the wastewater impact considering its lower flow volume. MDPI 2020-09-18 2020-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7557954/ /pubmed/32962009 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186813 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Pantanella, Fabrizio Lekunberri, Itziar Gagliardi, Antonella Venuto, Giuseppe Sànchez-Melsió, Alexandre Fabiani, Massimo Balcázar, José Luis Schippa, Serena De Giusti, Maria Borrego, Carles Solimini, Angelo Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers |
title | Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers |
title_full | Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers |
title_fullStr | Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers |
title_full_unstemmed | Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers |
title_short | Effect of Urban Wastewater Discharge on the Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Two Italian Rivers |
title_sort | effect of urban wastewater discharge on the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes and antibiotic-resistant escherichia coli in two italian rivers |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7557954/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32962009 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186813 |
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