摘要

       抗生素的过度使用引起了人们对由抗菌素耐药性增加引起的人类健康风险的日益担忧。河流系统通常被认为是抗生素抗性基因 (ARG) 的天然储存库。在这项研究中，包括基于高通量测序的宏基因组学方法、统计分析和网络分析在内的几种方法被联合应用来表征北京城市河流沉积物中 ARGs 的广谱剖面。此外，通过对河流沉积物和原始生态位（遥远的南极土壤和深海沉积物）之间 ARGs 宏基因组分析的比较研究，确定了人类活动对 ARGs 存在的贡献。总共在人类影响的河流沉积物中检测到属于 22 个 ARG 类型的 442 个 ARG 亚型，每个 16S-rRNA 基因拷贝的 ARG 丰度范围为 1.1×10-1–8.1×10-1 个拷贝。最丰富和最多样化的 ARG 通常与在该地区广泛使用的抗生素有关，这可能表明 ARG 在河流环境中的传播，因为抗生素使用产生了选择压力。总体而言，人为活动是主要 ARG 类型的主要贡献者，例如，磺胺-ARGs 占 100%，β-内酰胺-ARGs 占 97%，氨基糖苷-ARGs 占 94%，四环素-ARGs 占 64%。本研究深入了解人类活动在加速 ARGs 在城市河流环境中的传播和扩散中的作用，并提请注意控制抗生素的使用和排放以保护公众健康。

       The over-use of antibiotics causes growing concerns about human health risks induced by increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance. Riverine systems are considered generally as a natural reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In this study, several methods including high-throughput sequencing-based metagenomics approach, statistical analysis and network analysis were applied jointly to characterize the wide-spectrum profile of ARGs in the sediments of an urban river in Beijing. Furthermore, contribution of human activities for the presence of ARGs was identified through comparative studies on the metagenomic profiling of ARGs between the river sediments and pristine niches (remote Antarctic soils and deep sea sediments). In total, 442 ARG subtypes belonging to 22 ARG types were detected in the human-impacted river sediments with an abundance range of 1.1 × 10−1–8.1 × 10−1 copy of ARG per copy of 16S-rRNA gene. The most abundant and diverse ARGs were commonly associated with antibiotics that have been extensively used in that area, likely indicating the spread of ARGs in river environments because of the selective pressure resulting from antibiotic use. As a whole, anthropogenic activities were the dominant contributor of major ARG types, for example, occupying 100% for sulfonamide-ARGs, 97% for beta-lactam-ARGs, 94% for aminoglycoside-ARGs and 64% for tetracycline-ARGs. This study provides insights into the role of human activities in accelerating the dissemination and proliferation of ARGs in urban river environment and draws attention to controlling the use and discharge of antibiotics for protection of public health.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969718343997