Occurrence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Bacterial Markers in a Tropical River Receiving Hospital and Urban Wastewaters
The occurrence of emerging biological contaminants including antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and Faecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) is still little investigated in developing countries under tropical conditions. In this study, the total bacterial load, the abundance of FIB (E. coli and Enterococcus...
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Published in | PloS one Vol. 11; no. 2; p. e0149211 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Public Library of Science
24.02.2016
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The occurrence of emerging biological contaminants including antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and Faecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) is still little investigated in developing countries under tropical conditions. In this study, the total bacterial load, the abundance of FIB (E. coli and Enterococcus spp. (ENT)), Pseudomonas spp. and ARGs (blaTEM, blaCTX-M, blaSHV, blaNDM and aadA) were quantified using quantitative PCR in the total DNA extracted from the sediments recovered from hospital outlet pipes (HOP) and the Cauvery River Basin (CRB), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. The abundance of bacterial marker genes were 120, 104 and 89 fold higher for the E. coli, Enterococcus spp. and Pseudomonas spp., respectively at HOP when compared with CRB. The ARGs aadA and blaTEM were most frequently detected in higher concentration than other ARGs at all the sampling sites. The ARGs blaSHV and blaNDM were identified in CRB sediments contaminated by hospital and urban wastewaters. The ARGs abundance strongly correlated (r ≥ 0.36, p < 0.05, n = 45) with total bacterial load and E. coli in the sediments, indicating a common origin and extant source of contamination. Tropical aquatic ecosystems receiving wastewaters can act as reservoir of ARGs, which could potentially be transferred to susceptible bacterial pathogens at these sites. |
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Bibliography: | Conceived and designed the experiments: ND PTM BWI JP. Performed the experiments: ND AL. Analyzed the data: ND CKM JPO JP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BWI JP KP. Wrote the paper: ND JPO JIM BWI JP. Contributed for sample collection and shipping: ND KP. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 1932-6203 |
DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0149211 |