Impacts of human activities on distribution of sulfate-reducing prokaryotes and antibiotic resistance genes in marine coastal sediments of Hong Kong.
Sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRPs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in sediments could be biomarkers for evaluating the environmental impacts of human activities, although factors governing their distribution are not clear yet. By using metagenomic approach, this study investigated the distributions of SRPs and ARGs in marine sediments collected from 12 different coastal locations of Hong Kong, which exhibited different pollution levels and were classified into two groups based on sediment parameters. Our results showed that relative abundances of major SRP genera to total prokaryotes were consistently lower in the more seriously polluted sediments (P-value < 0.05 in 13 of 20 genera), indicating that the relative abundance of SRPs is a negatively correlated biomarker for evaluating human impacts. Moreover, a unimodel distribution pattern for SRPs along with the pollution gradient was observed. Although total ARGs were enriched in sediments from the polluted sites, distribution of single major ARG types could be explained neither by individual sediment parameters nor by corresponding concentration of antibiotics. It supports the hypothesis that the persistence of ARGs in sediments may not need the selection of antibiotics. In summary, our study provided important hints of the niche differentiation of SRPs and behavior of ARGs in marine coastal sediment.
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, 361100, China.
Feng
F
Guo
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control of Shenzhen, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, 518055, China.
Bing
B
Li
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, 510006, China.
Ying
Y
Yang
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Yu
Y
Deng
Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
Jian-Wen
JW
Qiu
Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Xiangdong
X
Li
The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Kenneth My
KM
Leung
Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China zhangt@hku.hk.
Tong
T
Zhang
D001105:Archaea / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics*; D004777:Environment; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology*; D006723:Hong Kong; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D056186:Metagenomics; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D013431:Sulfates / Q000378:metabolism; D014876:Water Pollution
D013431:Sulfates
environmental behavior; metagenome; microbial community; pollution