Penguin-Driven Dissemination and High Enrichment of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Lake Sediments across Antarctica.

Environ Sci Technol

Research Center for Environmental Ecology and Engineering, School of Environmental Ecology and Biological Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China.

Published: August 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Penguins in Antarctica are spreading antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) through their guano, impacting lake sediments.
  • Research showed that sediments enriched by penguin guano (OLS) contained significantly more and diverse ARGs compared to nonornithogenic sediments (NOLS), with up to 191 different ARGs detected.
  • The study suggests that penguin activities may contribute more to ARG pollution in these environments than local human activities, linking penguin migration and food chains to global ARG spread.

Article Abstract

Numerous penguins can propagate pathogens with antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) into Antarctica. However, the effects of penguin dissemination on the lake ARGs still have received little attention via guano deposition. Here, we have profiled ARGs in ornithogenic sediments subject to penguin guano (OLS) and nonornithogenic sediments (NOLS) from 16 lakes across Antarctica. A total of 191 ARGs were detected in all sediment samples, with a much higher abundance and diversity in OLS than in NOLS. Surprisingly, highly diverse and abundant ARGs were found in the OLS with a detection frequency of >40% and an absolute abundance of (2.34 × 10)-(4.98 × 10) copies g, comparable to those in coastal estuarine sediments and pig farms. The strong correlations of identified resistance genes with penguin guano input amount, environmental factors, mobile genetic elements, and bacterial community, in conjunction with network and redundancy analyses, all indicated that penguins were responsible for the dissemination and high enrichment of ARGs in lake sediments via the guano deposition, which might greatly outweigh local human-activity effects. Our results revealed that ARGs could be carried into lakes across the Antarctica through penguin migration, food chains, and guano deposition, which were closely connected with the widespread pollution of ARGs at the global scale.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02732DOI Listing

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