title: A comprehensive insight into tetracycline resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in activated sludge using next-generation sequencing.
abstract: In order to comprehensively investigate tetracycline resistance in activated sludge of sewage treatment plants, 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina high-throughput sequencing were used to detect potential tetracycline resistant bacteria (TRB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in sludge cultured with different concentrations of tetracycline. Pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene revealed that tetracycline treatment greatly affected the bacterial community structure of the sludge. Nine genera consisting of Sulfuritalea, Armatimonas, Prosthecobacter, Hyphomicrobium, Azonexus, Longilinea, Paracoccus, Novosphingobium and Rhodobacter were identified as potential TRB in the sludge. Results of qPCR, molecular cloning and metagenomic analysis consistently indicated that tetracycline treatment could increase both the abundance and diversity of the tet genes, but decreased the occurrence and diversity of non-tetracycline ARG, especially sulfonamide resistance gene sul2. Cluster analysis showed that tetracycline treatment at subinhibitory concentrations (5 mg/L) was found to pose greater effects on the bacterial community composition, which may be responsible for the variations of the ARGs abundance. This study indicated that joint use of 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina high-throughput sequencing can be effectively used to explore ARB and ARGs in the environment, and future studies should include an in-depth investigation of the relationship between microbial community, ARGs and antibiotics in sewage treatment plant (STP) sludge.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. huangkailongnju@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Kailong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. tjynju@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Junying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. zhangxx@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xu-Xiang
authors.initials: XX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. kexu@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Environmental Health Research Center, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. hqren@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongqiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000187:drug effects; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D056186:Metagenomics; D010802:Phylogeny; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D013752:Tetracycline / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013753:Tetracycline Resistance
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012722:Sewage; D013752:Tetracycline