Antibiotic resistance and resistome risks of inhalable bioaerosols at aeration tank of a full-scale wastewater treatment plant.

Antibiotic resistome could be aerosolized under wastewater aeration processes, however, their seasonal variation, mobility, hosts, aerosolization behavior, and risk, are largely unknown. Herein, the antibiotic resistant pollution associated with fine particulate matter (PM) from the actual aeration tank (AerT), was analyzed using metagenomic assembly. The antibiotic resistance of AerT-PM was characterized by significant seasonality. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in AerT-PM, exhibited higher enrichment and mobility and were harbored more by pathogens than those in upwind-PM, regardless of sampling season. Mobile ARGs were mainly flanked by transposase. Totally, 18 pathogenic antibiotic-resistant bacteria (PARB) carried more than one ARG, including 9 PARB with multiple ARG types. Although wastewater exerted a dominant source contribution for the airborne ARGs (47.31-55.56 %) and PARB (46.18-64.32 %), aeration endowed differential aerosolization capacity for various ARGs and PARB from wastewater. Airborne antibiotic resistome was mainly determined by bacterial community and indirectly influenced by meteorological conditions (i.e., relative humidity). Higher PM-borne resistome risk was observed in AerT than upwind, and the most serious resistome risk of AerT-PM was found in winter. This study emphasizes the importance of wastewater aeration processes in emission of airborne antibiotic resistome and offers referenced information for mitigating air pollution in wastewater treatment plants.