The fate of tetracycline in vegetated mesocosmic wetlands and its impact on the water quality and epiphytic microbes

Okugbe Ebiotubo Ohore; Songhe Zhang; Shaozhuang Guo; Benjamin Manirakiza; Felix Gyawu Addo; Wenzjun Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126148

The fate of tetracycline in vegetated mesocosmic wetlands and its impact on the water quality and epiphytic microbes

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Sep 5:417:126148. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126148. Epub 2021 May 19.

Authors

Okugbe Ebiotubo Ohore¹, Songhe Zhang², Shaozhuang Guo³, Benjamin Manirakiza⁴, Felix Gyawu Addo⁵, Wenzjun Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Institute of Marine Sciences and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China; Organization of African Academic Doctors, Off Kamiti Road, P.O. Box 25305-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
² Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China. Electronic address: shzhang@hhu.edu.cn.
³ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China.
⁴ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Organization of African Academic Doctors, Off Kamiti Road, P.O. Box 25305-00100, Nairobi, Kenya; University of Rwanda (UR), College of Science and Technology (CST), Department of Biology, P.O. Box 3900, Kigali, Rwanda.
⁵ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Organization of African Academic Doctors, Off Kamiti Road, P.O. Box 25305-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.

PMID: 34229400
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126148

Abstract

The fate of antibiotics and their impact on antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and microbial communities are far from clear in wetlands. The fate and impact of tetracycline (TC) on the nutrient degradation of wetlands and epiphytic microbes were investigated. This study showed that after TC spiking, 99.7% of TC were removed from the surface water of wetlands containing Vallisneria spiralis within 4 days post-treatment. TC spiking impaired the nutrient removal capacity and disrupted epiphytic microbial community structure while enhancing the abundance of 11 ARGs subtypes, including tetracycline resistance genes, tetX, tetM, tetO, tetQ, tetS, and tet36. TC decreased bacterial biodiversity but amplified the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes by 4% and 61%, respectively, and increased eukaryotic diversity. 16 metabolic pathways including Carbohydrate, Energy, Amino acid, 'cofactor and vitamins' metabolisms were significantly (p < 0.01) increased in TC treatment. Phylogenetic, functional prediction analysis indicated that Flavobacterium was positively related with xenobiotics, cell motility, 'terpenoids and polyketides' metabolism but negatively related to nucleotide metabolism, while Rhodobacter showed a reverse trend but positively related with nucleotide and 'glycan biosynthesis' and metabolism. These data highlighted that TC has negative impacts on epiphytic microbial community and nutrients removal in wetlands.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genes; Epiphytic biofilm; Eukaryotes; Microbial food web; Wetlands.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Genes, Bacterial
Phylogeny
Tetracycline
Water Quality*
Wetlands*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Tetracycline