Increased Transmission of Antibiotic Resistance Occurs in a Soil Food Chain under Pesticide Stress.

Environ Sci Technol

State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.

Published: December 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in soil are spreading, but how they move through soil ecosystems is not well understood, particularly concerning the role of soil organisms like collembolans and predatory mites.
  • This study analyzed the impact of pesticide stress (zinc thiazole) on the gut microbiomes of collembolans, finding that ARGs significantly increased in these organisms and transferred to predatory mites through feeding.
  • Findings highlight that mobile genetic elements are key in transferring ARGs along the food chain, and there's a concerning connection between these genes and potential pathogens, emphasizing the importance of understanding antibiotic resistance dynamics in soil environments.

Article Abstract

The rising spread of antibiotic resistance is a global concern, but the pathways of dissemination within soil ecosystems remain poorly understood. Here, we quantified the occurrence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in gut microbiomes of soil collembolans () under pesticide stress (zinc thiazole, ZT) and analyzed the trophic transfer of ARGs to the microbiomes of predatory mites (), natural predators of collembolans. High throughput quantitative PCR was used to quantify ARGs, whereas gut microbiomes of collembolans and mites were characterized using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and potential pathogens were identified. Our results revealed that ZT exposure significantly elevated the abundance of ARGs (e.g., ) in soil collembolan microbiomes. With the increase of ARGs in prey collembolan microbiomes, an increase of ARGs in predatory mite microbiomes was observed through trophic transfer. Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) significantly contribute to the transmission of ARGs within this food chain. Additionally, co-occurrence analysis indicated a strong association between gut resistomes and pathogens, such as , in the collembolans and predatory mites. Overall, our study provides evidence for the dissemination of ARGs through the collembolan-predatory mite food chain following pesticide exposure, which is important for understanding the broader dynamics of antibiotic resistance spreading in soil ecosystems.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c07822DOI Listing

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