摘要

抗生素耐药性是一种正在出现的全球性健康危机，其主要原因是过度使用和滥用抗生素。但是，在某些例子中，这些抗微生物剂的生产已用活性抗生素残留污染了环境，选择了抗生素抗性细菌及其携带的基因。在这项工作中，我们已经使用shot弹枪宏基因组学来研究克罗地亚某处理厂（从大环内酯类抗生素阿奇霉素生产产生的废水中）的污泥群落的分类结构和抗性基因组成。我们发现，接受制药生产废水的处理厂污泥中抗生素抗性基因的总丰度比萨格勒布污水处理厂的市政污泥高三倍。出人意料的是，大环内酯类抗性基因在工业污泥中的丰度并不高，但与整合遗传基因（例如整合素）相关的基因却具有。我们得出的结论是，在高浓度的抗生素下，选择可能有利于向具有内在抗性物种或具有染色体抗性突变的菌株的分类学转变，而不是获得流动性抗性决定簇。我们的结果强调了在欧洲范围内也需要采取监管措施，以避免将抗生素释放到环境中。

Antibiotic resistance is an emerging global health crisis, driven largely by overuse and misuse of antibiotics. However, there are examples in which the production of these antimicrobial agents has polluted the environment with active antibiotic residues, selecting for antibiotic resistant bacteria and the genes they carry. In this work, we have used shotgun metagenomics to investigate the taxonomic structure and resistance gene composition of sludge communities in a treatment plant in Croatia receiving wastewater from production of the macrolide antibiotic azithromycin. We found that the total abundance of antibiotic resistance genes was three times higher in sludge from the treatment plant receiving wastewater from pharmaceutical production than in municipal sludge from a sewage treatment plant in Zagreb. Surprisingly, macrolide resistance genes did not have higher abundances in the industrial sludge, but genes associated with mobile genetic elements such as integrons had. We conclude that at high concentrations of antibiotics, selection may favor taxonomic shifts towards intrinsically resistant species or strains harboring chromosomal resistance mutations rather than acquisition of mobile resistance determinants. Our results underscore the need for regulatory action also within Europe to avoid release of antibiotics into the environment.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135419305950