Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2022, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (2): 236-243.doi: 10.19741/j.issn.1673-4831.2021.0110

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Induction of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Bacterial Community in Soil by Exogenous Zn

YANG Tong-yi1, LI Jing2, TANG Guo-teng1, YANG Fen1, TANG Yu-bin1   

  1. 1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China;
    2. Integrated Technology Center of Zhenjing Customs, Zhenjiang 212003, China
  • Received:2021-02-25 Online:2022-02-25 Published:2022-02-24

Abstract: Using high throughput sequencing and real-time PCR techniques,the effects of added Zn on relative abundance of aminoglycoside antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and bacterial communities in soil were studied by indoor culture. The results show that Zn concentration and treatment time had different effects on aminoglycoside ARGs and MGEs.After treatment with 1 000 mg·kg-1 Zn for 60 d, the relative abundances of acc, aacC1 and integron int11 were the highest, which were 4.1, 9.7 and 3.7 times as those of the control, respectively. When 800 mg·kg-1 Zn was treated for 60 d, the relative abundance of aac(6')-Ⅱ was the highest, which was 13.7 times as that of the control. The relative abundance of transposon Tp614 was significantly increased only after 60 d of Zn treatment, and the highest relative abundance was obtained at 100 mg·kg-1 Zn treatment, which was 4.6 times that of the control. Zn stress decreased the diversity index of bacterial community and increased the dominance index, indicating that Zn toxicity caused the disappearance of sensitive bacteria and the increase of resistant bacteria. Redundancy analysis show that the effect of Zn stress duration on bacterial community structure was greater than that of Zn concentration. When the treatment time was equal, the structure of soil bacterial community was significantly different between low concentration Zn (100-400 mg·kg-1) and high concentration Zn (800-1 000 mg·kg-1). Zn treatment was negatively correlated with Nocardioides, Adhaeribacter and Arthrobacter, and positively correlated with Flavisolibacter, Sphingomonas and Solirubrobacter. The network coexistence analysis show that acc, aac(6')-Ⅱ, aacC1 and int11, IS613 had high connections under Zn stress; Steroidobacter was connected to Tp614, which may be the potential host of Tp614. The studies have shown that high concentration of Zn pollution can accelerate the spreading and diffusion of soil ARGs. Even if low concentration of Zn exists for a long time, some ARGs and MGEs can be induced, and the risk of horizontal transfer can also be increased, which is worthy of attention.

Key words: soil, heavy metal, aminoglycoside antibiotics, mobile genetic elements, horizontal gene transfer

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