Keer, Abhishek;
Oza, Yukti;
Mongad, Dattatray;
Ramakrishnan, Dinesh;
Dhotre, Dhiraj;
Ahmed, Abdelfattah;
Zumla, Alimuddin;
... Sharma, Avinash; + view all
(2025)
Assessment of seasonal variations in antibiotic resistance genes and microbial communities in sewage treatment plants for public health monitoring.
Environmental Pollution
, 375
, Article 126367. 10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126367.
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Abstract
The spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) around the globe, especially in the urban cities with high population, is a major concern. Therefore, the current study aims at identifying antibiotic resistant bacteria, microbial community compositions and the quantification of antimicrobial resistant genes from six sewage treatment plants (STPs) across Pune city in Maharashtra, India. A total of 106 isolates obtained were tested against six antibiotics in which the highest resistance was observed against trimethoprim (24.53%). The qPCR assays of seven antibiotic resistance genes revealed abundance of blaimp-1 and mecA genes in the summer and monsoon seasons followed by blaNDM-1 gene in the summer and winter seasons. . The alpha diversity indices depicted highest microbial diversity of inlet samples during winter, followed by inlet samples during the summer and monsoon seasons. Comparative analysis revealed Bifidobacterium (51%), Pseudomonas (28.7%) and Zoogloea (17.6%) as the most abundant genera in the inlet samples during the summer, monsoon and winter seasons respectively while Acinetobacter (31%) and Flavobacterium (23% in winter and 18.2% in summer) dominated the outlet samples. The co-network analysis revealed positive and negative interactions in the winter and monsoon but only positive interactions in the summer season. Venn diagrams showed higher abundance of ASVs in the outlet samples than the inlet. The top genera correlated exactly opposite with the pH compared to BOD and COD. PICRUSt2-based functional prediction revealed a higher abundance of methicillin resistance, β-lactamase resistance and multidrug resistance genes in inlet samples while chloramphenicol resistance was found higher in outlet samples. Further, we observed that potential pathogens causing infectious disease such as pertussis, shigellosis and tuberculosis were present in all three seasons.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Assessment of seasonal variations in antibiotic resistance genes and microbial communities in sewage treatment plants for public health monitoring |
| Location: | England |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126367 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126367 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | 16S rRNA gene sequencing, Antibiotic resistance, qPCR, seasonal variation, Sewage Treatment Plants |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Infection and Immunity |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209919 |
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