TY - JOUR
T1 - Viability-based quantification of antibiotic resistance genes and human fecal markers in wastewater effluent and receiving waters
AU - Eramo, Alessia
AU - Morales Medina, William R.
AU - Fahrenfeld, Nicole L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Laboratory assistance was provided by Hannah Delos Reyes, Michelle Yam, and Sophia Blanc. Thanks to our utility partners for providing access to treatment plant samples. Funding for this project was largely provided by a grant from the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute , with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation (# 1510461 ), a Mark B. Bain Fellowship from the Hudson River Foundation , the Aresty Program at Rutgers , and NIH Bridges to the Doctorate Program ( R25GM058389 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/3/15
Y1 - 2019/3/15
N2 - Antibiotic resistance is a public health issue with links to environmental sources of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). ARGs from nonviable sources may pose a hazard given the potential for transformation whereas ARGs in viable sources may proliferate during host growth or conjugation. In this study, ARGs in the effluent from three municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the receiving surface waters were investigated using a viability-based qPCR technique (vPCR) with propidium monoazide (PMA). ARGs sul1, tet(G), and blaTEM, fecal indicator marker BacHum, and 16S rRNA gene copies/mL were found to be significantly lower in viable-cells than in total concentrations for WWTP effluent. Viable-cell and total gene copy concentrations were similar in downstream samples except for tet(G). Differences with respect to season in the prevalence of nonviable ARGs in surface water or WWTP effluent were not observed. The results of this study indicate that qPCR may overestimate viable-cell ARGs and fecal indicator genes in WWTP effluent but not necessarily in the surface water >1.8 km downstream.
AB - Antibiotic resistance is a public health issue with links to environmental sources of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). ARGs from nonviable sources may pose a hazard given the potential for transformation whereas ARGs in viable sources may proliferate during host growth or conjugation. In this study, ARGs in the effluent from three municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the receiving surface waters were investigated using a viability-based qPCR technique (vPCR) with propidium monoazide (PMA). ARGs sul1, tet(G), and blaTEM, fecal indicator marker BacHum, and 16S rRNA gene copies/mL were found to be significantly lower in viable-cells than in total concentrations for WWTP effluent. Viable-cell and total gene copy concentrations were similar in downstream samples except for tet(G). Differences with respect to season in the prevalence of nonviable ARGs in surface water or WWTP effluent were not observed. The results of this study indicate that qPCR may overestimate viable-cell ARGs and fecal indicator genes in WWTP effluent but not necessarily in the surface water >1.8 km downstream.
KW - Antibiotic resistance genes
KW - Chlorination
KW - Propidium monoazide
KW - Wastewater
KW - vPCR
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U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.325
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.325
M3 - Article
C2 - 30522032
AN - SCOPUS:85057567153
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 656
SP - 495
EP - 502
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -