title: Influences of graphene on microbial community and antibiotic resistance genes in mouse gut as determined by high-throughput sequencing.
abstract: Graphene is a promising candidate as an antibacterial material owning to its bacterial toxicity. However, little information on influence of graphene on gut microbiota is available. In this study, mice were exposed to graphene for 4 weeks, and high-throughput sequencing was applied to characterize the changes in microbial community and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in mouse gut. The results showed that graphene exposure increased biodiversity of gut microbiota, and changed their community. The 1 μg/d graphene exposure had higher influences on the gut microbiota than 10 μg/d and 100 μg/d graphene exposures, which might be due to higher aggregation of high-level graphene. The influence of graphene on gut microbiota might attribute to that graphene could induce oxidative stress and damage of cell membrane integrity. The results were verified by the increase of ratio of Gram-negative bacteria. Outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria could reduce the membrane damage induced by graphene and make them more tolerance to graphene. Further, we found that graphene exposure significantly increased the abundance and types of ARGs, indicating a potential health risk of graphene. This study firstly provides new insight to the health effects of graphene on gut microbiota.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Yongchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China. Electronic address: bwu@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China. Electronic address: 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, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Jinbao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Maojie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D044822:Biodiversity; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics*; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000187:drug effects / Q000382:microbiology*; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D006108:Graphite / Q000633:toxicity*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D006108:Graphite
keywords: Antibiotics resistance gene; Graphene; Gut microbiota; High-throughput sequencing