Co-occurrence of crAssphage and antibiotic resistance genes in agricultural soils of the Yangtze River Delta, China

Wen Li; Zishu Liu; Baolan Hu; Lizhong Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106620

Co-occurrence of crAssphage and antibiotic resistance genes in agricultural soils of the Yangtze River Delta, China

Environ Int. 2021 Nov:156:106620. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106620. Epub 2021 May 11.

Authors

Wen Li¹, Zishu Liu², Baolan Hu³, Lizhong Zhu⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Process and Control, Hangzhou 310058, China. Electronic address: 21814010@zju.edu.cn.
² College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China. Electronic address: liuzishu@zju.edu.cn.
³ College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China. Electronic address: blhu@zju.edu.cn.
⁴ College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Organic Pollution Process and Control, Hangzhou 310058, China. Electronic address: zlz@zju.edu.cn.

PMID: 33989841
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106620

Abstract

Agricultural soil is highly susceptible to manure contamination and thus is a potential source for the spread of pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Routine monitoring fecal contamination in agricultural soil can reduce the manure-derived ARG contaminations. This study investigated the distribution of crAssphage, a highly human-specific indicator of fecal pollution, in agricultural soils in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) of China, and its potential in serving as an indicator of soil ARGs. CrAssphage was indeed strongly correlated with the abundance of soil ARGs, and particularly tetracycline resistance gene tetW (rho = 0.55, p < 0.01). Meanwhile, with the increasing of crAssphage abundance, the frequency of multiple abundant ARGs is also increased. When the relative abundance of crAssphage in soil samples exceeded 4.94 × 10^-4 copies per copy of the 16S rRNA gene, there would be more than three types of co-existing ARGs. Regional differences in crAssphage and ARGs abundances were observed for samples collected from Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Anhui in the YRD, indicating different levels of fecal pollution therein. High sewage treatment capacity could contribute to the reduce of fecal pollution and the control ARG transmission in agricultural soils.

Keywords: Agricultural soils; Antibiotic resistance genes; Antibiotics; Fecal pollution; crAssphage.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
China
Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics
Genes, Bacterial / genetics
Humans
Manure / analysis
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Rivers*
Soil Microbiology
Soil*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Manure
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Soil