title: Exploring the links between antibiotic occurrence, antibiotic resistance, and bacterial communities in water supply reservoirs.
abstract: Antibiotic resistance represents a growing global health concern due to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. There is, however, little information about how the selective pressure of clinical antibiotic usage can affect environmental communities in aquatic ecosystems and which bacterial groups might be responsible for dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) into the environment. In this study, chemical and biological characterization of water and sediments from three water supply reservoirs subjected to a wide pollution gradient allowed to draw an accurate picture of the concentration of antibiotics and prevalence of ARGs, in order to evaluate the potential role of ARGs in shaping bacterial communities, and to identify the bacterial groups most probably carrying and disseminating ARGs. Results showed significant correlation between the presence of ARG conferring resistance to macrolides and the composition of bacterial communities, suggesting that antibiotic pollution and the spreading of ARG might play a role in the conformation of bacterial communities in reservoirs. Results also pointed out the bacterial groups Actinobacteria and Firmicutes as the ones probably carrying and disseminating ARGs. The potential effect of antibiotic pollution and the presence of ARGs on the composition of bacterial communities in lacustrine ecosystems prompt the fundamental question about potential effects on bacterial-related ecosystem services supplied by lakes and reservoirs.
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huerta
authors.forename: Elisabet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marti
authors.forename: Meritxell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gros
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pompêo
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Armengol
authors.forename: Damià
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barceló
authors.forename: Jose Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Balcázar
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Mozaz
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Marcé
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis / Q000382:microbiology; D013030:Spain; D014871:Water Microbiology / Q000592:standards*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D062066:Water Resources / Q000592:standards*; D014881:Water Supply / Q000592:standards*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical