TY - JOUR
T1 - Occurrence of Antibiotic-Resistant Genes and Bacteria in Household Greywater Treated in Constructed Wetlands
AU - Henderson, Michelle
AU - Ergas, Sarina J.
AU - Ghebremichael, Kebreab
AU - Gross, Amit
AU - Ronen, Zeev
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the NSF PIRE: Context-Sensitive Implementation of Synergistic Water-Energy Systems Award Number 1243510. The Zuck Macabi Foundation also supported this research. This project was also funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation University Center for Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) Award #2013-5-13MPHDT to USF and the Florida Education Fund’s McKnight Doctoral Fellowship Program.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - There is a growing body of knowledge on the persistence of antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in greywater and greywater treatment systems such as constructed wetlands (CWs). Our research quantified ARGs (sul1, qnrS, and blaCTXM32), class one integron (intI1), and bacterial marker (16S) in four recirculating vertical flow CWs in a small community in the Negev desert, Israel, using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The greywater microbial community was characterized using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Results show that CWs can reduce ARG in greywater by 1–3 log, depending on the gene and the quality of the raw greywater. Community sequencing results showed that the bacterial community composi-tion was not significantly altered after treatment and that Proteobacteria, Epsilonbacteraeota, and Bacteroidetes were the most dominant phyla before and after treatment. Pseudomonas, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, and Aeromonas were the most commonly identified genera of the extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) colonies. Some of the ESBL bacteria identified have been linked to clinical infections (Acinetobacter nosocomialis, Pseudomonas fulva, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas monteilii, and Roseomonas cervicalis). It is important to monitor intI1 for the potential transfer of ARGs to pathogenic bacteria.
AB - There is a growing body of knowledge on the persistence of antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) in greywater and greywater treatment systems such as constructed wetlands (CWs). Our research quantified ARGs (sul1, qnrS, and blaCTXM32), class one integron (intI1), and bacterial marker (16S) in four recirculating vertical flow CWs in a small community in the Negev desert, Israel, using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The greywater microbial community was characterized using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Results show that CWs can reduce ARG in greywater by 1–3 log, depending on the gene and the quality of the raw greywater. Community sequencing results showed that the bacterial community composi-tion was not significantly altered after treatment and that Proteobacteria, Epsilonbacteraeota, and Bacteroidetes were the most dominant phyla before and after treatment. Pseudomonas, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, and Aeromonas were the most commonly identified genera of the extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) colonies. Some of the ESBL bacteria identified have been linked to clinical infections (Acinetobacter nosocomialis, Pseudomonas fulva, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas monteilii, and Roseomonas cervicalis). It is important to monitor intI1 for the potential transfer of ARGs to pathogenic bacteria.
KW - Antibiotic resistance
KW - Constructed wetlands
KW - Extended spectrum beta lactamase
KW - Greywater
KW - Greywater treatment systems
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125663936&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/w14050758
DO - 10.3390/w14050758
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125663936
SN - 2073-4441
VL - 14
JO - Water (Switzerland)
JF - Water (Switzerland)
IS - 5
M1 - 758
ER -