Spatial and Temporal Differences and Influencing Factors of Mobile Genetic Elements in Urban and Suburban River Sediments in Shijiazhuang City

• Published in: Huanjing kexue Vol. 46; no. 4; p. 2250
• Main Authors: Chen, Hao-da, Gao, Sai, Wang, Lin-Jing, Zhao, Bo, Lu, Meng-Qi, Song, Yuan-Meng, Cui, Jian-Sheng, Zhang, Lu-Lu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Chinese
• Published: China 08.04.2025
• Subjects: China; Cities; Drug Resistance, Microbial - genetics; Environmental Monitoring; Geologic Sediments - microbiology; Interspersed Repetitive Sequences - genetics; Rivers; Spatio-Temporal Analysis; China; spatial and temporal distribution; metagenome; mobile genetic elements（MGEs）; rural rivers; urban rivers; socio-economic factors
• ISSN: 0250-3301
• DOI: 10.13227/j.hjkx.202403034

With the widespread use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, the spread of antibiotic resistance genes （ARGs） in the environment has become a serious threat to ecological balance and human health, particularly for its role in facilitating the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. The study of riverine environments as a major transmission route for ARGs and closely related mobile genetic elements （MGEs） is of great importance. MGEs exacerbate the spread of resistance genes by facilitating the horizontal transfer of ARGs in bacterial populations. Although studies have been conducted to explore the interactions between MGEs and ARGs, there is still a relative lack of research on the spatial and temporal differences in the distribution of MGEs in rivers and their drivers. This study selected two rural rivers （with a total of six sampling points） and three urban rivers （with a total of nine sampling points） within Shijiazhuang as research subjects, and sediment samples were collected in December 2020