Integrating Metagenomic and Bayesian Analyses to Evaluate the Performance and Confidence of CrAssphage as an Indicator for Tracking Human Sewage Contamination in China.

Recently, has been proposed as a human-specific marker for tracking fecal contamination. However, its performance has always been validated in a limited number of host samples, which may obscure our understanding of its utility. Furthermore, few studies have quantified confidence of fecal contamination when using .

Effects on microbiomes and resistomes and the source-specific ecological risks of heavy metals in the sediments of an urban river.

This study aims to better understand the effects of heavy metal enrichment on microbiomes and resistomes and the source-specific ecological risks of metals in the sediments of an urban river. Geo-accumulation index and enrichment factor suggested the river sediments were contaminated by Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in varying degrees. High-throughput sequencing-based metagenomics analysis identified 430 types of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), dominated by the multidrug, MLS, bacitracin, quinolone, and aminoglycoside ARGs, and 52 metal resistance genes (MRGs) mainly conferring resistance to zinc, copper, cadmium, lead, mercury and multiple metals.

Source apportionment and source-oriented risk assessment of heavy metals in the sediments of an urban river-lake system.

Heavy metal pollution in lakes has attracted concerns worldwide since long retention times in lakes allow metals to accumulate and may pose significant threat to ecosystem health. For designing targeted risk mitigation strategies, it is necessary to identify the source-specific risks of heavy metals in the environment. Although previous studies have addressed either risk assessment or source identification of heavy metals in the environment, few have attempted to establish a link between them.

[Environmental Characteristics and Source Apportionment of Heavy Metals in the Sediments of a River-Lake System].

In this study, the geochemical characteristics and ecological risks of heavy metals in the sediments of a river-lake system were comprehensively identified and the spatial distribution was analyzed. Meanwhile, the potential sources of heavy metals in the sediments were apportioned using the positive matrix factorization model (PMF). The elements Cd, Cu, and Zn were identified as the main pollutants in the sediments of the river-lake system; in particular, Cd indicated an ecological risk.

Characterization and source identification of antibiotic resistance genes in the sediments of an interconnected river-lake system.

Antimicrobial resistance has been a global public health concern. The river-lake systems are one of the tightly connected terrestrial ecosystems and, appear to be reservoirs of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) and dispersal routes of resistant pathogens because they are easily impacted by human activities. Currently, systematic knowledge on the prevalence, transfer risk and source of ARGs in river-lake systems is largely lacking.

Source identification of antibiotic resistance genes in a peri-urban river using novel crAssphage marker genes and metagenomic signatures.

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing public health concern, and environment is regarded as an important reservoir and dissemination route for antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). To prevent and control ARG pollution, it is essential to correctly disentangle source-sink relationship of ARGs in the environment. However, accurately apportioning sources of ARGs is still a big challenge due to the complex interaction of multiple sources and contaminants in the environment with changing dynamics.

Characterization and source-tracking of antibiotic resistomes in the sediments of a peri-urban river.

The peri-urban rivers are one of the critical interfaces between urban-rural symbiotic ecosystems and appear to be a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment. To prevent the transmission risks of ARGs between peri-urban river and human, it is essential to explore the prevalence and source of ARGs in the environment for designing potential mitigation strategies. In this study, we focused on the characterization and source-tracking of ARGs in the sediments of a typical peri-urban river in Beijing, Chaobai River.