Global diversity and distribution of antibiotic resistance genes in human wastewater treatment systems

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 4006 - 14
• Main Authors: Zhu, Congmin, Wu, Linwei, Ning, Daliang, Tian, Renmao, Gao, Shuhong, Zhang, Bing, Zhao, Jianshu, Zhang, Ya, Xiao, Naijia, Wang, Yajiao, Brown, Mathew R., Tu, Qichao, Ju, Feng, Wells, George F., Guo, Jianhua, He, Zhili, Nielsen, Per H., Wang, Aijie, Zhang, Yu, Chen, Ting, He, Qiang, Criddle, Craig S., Wagner, Michael, Tiedje, James M., Curtis, Thomas P., Wen, Xianghua, Yang, Yunfeng, Alvarez-Cohen, Lisa, Stahl, David A., Alvarez, Pedro J. J., Rittmann, Bruce E., Zhou, Jizhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 29.04.2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 38/23; 631/326/171/1878; 631/326/22/1434; 631/326/2565/2142; Abiotic factors; Activated sludge; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - drug effects; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Bacteriology; Biodiversity and Ecology; Composition; Continents; DNA sequencing; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Bacterial - genetics; Drug Resistance, Microbial - genetics; Environmental Sciences; Gene sequencing; Genes; Genes, Bacterial; Genetics; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Interspersed Repetitive Sequences - genetics; Life Sciences; Microbiology and Parasitology; multidisciplinary; Oceans; Pharmaceutical sciences; Pharmacology; Populations and Evolution; Reservoirs; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sewage - microbiology; Stochastic processes; Wastewater - microbiology; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plants; Water Purification; Metagenomics; Water microbiology; Antimicrobial resistance
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59019-3

Antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to human health, and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are important reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Here, we analyze the antibiotic resistomes of 226 activated sludge samples from 142 WWTPs across six continents, using a consistent pipeline for sample collection, DNA sequencing and analysis. We find that ARGs are diverse and similarly abundant, with a core set of 20 ARGs present in all WWTPs. ARG composition differs across continents and is distinct from that of the human gut and the oceans. ARG composition strongly correlates with bacterial taxonomic composition, with Chloroflexi , Acidobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria being the major carriers. ARG abundance positively correlates with the presence of mobile genetic elements, and 57% of the 1112 recovered high-quality genomes possess putatively mobile ARGs. Resistome variations appear to be driven by a complex combination of stochastic processes and deterministic abiotic factors. Wastewater treatment plants are important reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Here, the authors analyze ARGs in a global collection of samples from wastewater treatment plants across six continents, providing insights into biotic and abiotic mechanisms that appear to control ARG diversity and distribution.