Metagenomics-based antibiotic resistance genes diversity and prevalence risk revealed by pathogenic bacterial host in Taihu Lake, China

Abstract

In recent decades, antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been regarded as emerging pollutants. In Taihu Lake, as a typical representative of freshwater system in China, the ARGs occurrence and abundance was of great importance for ecological risk control and public health protection. In this research, high-throughput sequencing and metagenomics technique were used to investigate the seasonal ARGs profile in overlying water and sediment at typical area of Taihu Lake. Besides, taxonomy pattern of ARGs host bacteria and potential pathogens were identified. The results showed that 33 ARG subtypes and 11 ARG types were detected in research area, among which bacitracin, multidrug and sulfonamides resistance gene were with the highest abundance. The relative abundance of ARGs in overlying water and sediment ranged from 1.68 to 661.05 ppm and from 1.93 to 49.47 ppm, respectively. ARG host (18 bacteria genus) were identified and annotated, among which Clostridium botulinum, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumonia were pathogenic bacteria. The pathogens were mostly detected at Xukou Bay in spring and fall, which might be caused by the inlet water from aquaculture area of Yangcheng Lake. Pseudomonas was the most abundant ARGs host (ant2ib, baca, bl2d_oxa2,mexb, mexf, mexw and oprn), which may facilitate the propagation of ARGs in freshwater system.