MoS 2 decorated nanocomposite: Fe 2 O 3 @MoS 2 inhibits the conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes

• Published in: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety Vol. 186; p. 109781
• Main Authors: Wang, Honggui, Qi, Huachen, Zhu, Ming, Gong, Shujun, Huang, Zhihai, Zhang, Ya, Chen, Xiang, Jiao, Xin'an
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 30.12.2019
• Subjects: Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Candida albicans - drug effects; Candida albicans - genetics; Conjugation, Genetic - drug effects; Conjugation, Genetic - genetics; Disulfides - chemistry; Disulfides - pharmacology; Drug Resistance, Microbial - drug effects; Drug Resistance, Microbial - genetics; Escherichia coli - drug effects; Escherichia coli - genetics; Ferric Compounds - chemistry; Ferric Compounds - pharmacology; Gene Transfer, Horizontal - drug effects; Genes, Microbial; Molybdenum - chemistry; Molybdenum - pharmacology; Nanocomposites - chemistry; Plasmids; Staphylococcus aureus - drug effects; Staphylococcus aureus - genetics; Plasmid; FeO@MoS nanocomposite; Gene transfer; Toxicity; Conjugation
• ISSN: 1090-2414

Nanomaterials of Al O and TiO have been proved to promote the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) by horizontal gene transfer. In this work, we found that Fe O @MoS nanocomposite inhibited the horizontal gene transfer (HGT) by inhibiting the conjugative transfer mediated by RP4-7 plasmid. To discover the mechanism of Fe O @MoS inhibiting HGT, the bacterial cells were collected under the optimal mating conditions. The collected bacterial cells were used for analyzing the expression levels of genes unique to the plasmid and the bacterial chromosome in the conjugation system by qPCR. The results of genes expression demonstrated that the mechanism of Fe O @MoS inhibited conjugation by promoting the expression of global regulatory gene (trbA) and inhibiting the expression of conjugative transfer genes involved in mating pair formation (traF, trbB) and DNA replication (trfA). The risk assessment of Fe O @MoS showed that it had very low toxicity to organisms. The findings of this paper showed that Fe O @MoS , as an inhibitor of horizontal gene transfer, is an environment-friendly material.