title: An investigation of total bacterial communities, culturable antibiotic-resistant bacterial communities and integrons in the river water environments of Taipei city.
abstract: The intensive use of antibiotics may accelerate the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB). The global geographical distribution of environmental ARB has been indicated by many studies. However, the ARB in the water environments of Taiwan has not been extensively investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the communities of ARB in Huanghsi Stream, which presents a natural acidic (pH 4) water environment. Waishuanghsi Stream provides a neutral (pH 7) water environment and was thus also monitored to allow comparison. The plate counts of culturable bacteria in eight antibiotics indicate that the numbers of culturable carbenicillin- and vancomycin-resistant bacteria in both Huanghsi and Waishuanghsi Streams are greater than the numbers of culturable bacteria resistant to the other antibiotics tested. Using a 16S rDNA sequencing approach, both the antibiotic-resistant bacterial communities (culture-based) and the total bacterial communities (metagenome-based) in Waishuanghsi Stream exhibit a higher diversity than those in Huanghsi Stream were observed. Of the three classes of integron, only class I integrons were identified in Waishuanghsi Stream. Our results suggest that an acidic (pH 4) water environment may not only affect the community composition of antibiotic-resistant bacteria but also the horizontal gene transfer mediated by integrons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: ycw6861@scu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Chu-Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Yi-Tang
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Wei-Liang
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Iau-Iun
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Shiung
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Han-Sheng
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Hsuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Szu-Han
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Min-Jheng
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Pin-Hsuan
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Shih-Lin, Taipei 111, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Shao-Ning
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D002947:Cities; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal / Q000187:drug effects; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects; D032023:Integrons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D013624:Taiwan; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Antibiotics; Antibiotics resistance gene; Integron