Phthalates Boost Natural Transformation of Extracellular Antibiotic Resistance Genes through Enhancing Bacterial Motility and DNA Environmental Persistence

The environmental dissemination of extracellular antibiotic resistance genes (eARGs) in wastewater and natural water bodies has aroused growing ecological concerns. The coexisting chemical pollutants in water are known to markedly affect the eARGs transfer behaviors of the environmental microbial community, but the detailed interactions and specific impacts remain elusive so far. Here, we revealed a concentration-dependent impact of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) and several other types of phthalate esters (common water pollutants released from plastics) on the natural transformation of eARGs. The DMP exposure at an environmentally relevant concentration (10 μg/L) resulted in a 4.8-times raised transformation frequency of Acinetobacter baylyi but severely suppressed the transformation at a high concentration (1000 μg/L). The promotion by low-concentration DMP was attributed to multiple mechanisms, including increased bacterial mobility and membrane permeability to facilitate eARGs uptake and improved resistance of the DMP-bounded eARGs (via noncovalent interaction) to enzymatic degradation (with suppressed DNase activity). Similar promoting effects of DMP on the eARGs transformation were also found in real wastewater and biofilm systems. In contrast, higher-concentration DMP suppressed the eARGs transformation by disrupting the DNA structure. Our findings highlight a potentially underestimated eARGs spreading in aquatic environments due to the impacts of coexisting chemical pollutants and deepen our understanding of the risks of biological-chemical combined pollution in wastewater and environmental water bodies.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2024

Enthalten in:

Environmental science & technology - (2024) vom: 16. Apr.

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Wu, Jing [VerfasserIn]
Lv, Yun-Hui [VerfasserIn]
Sun, Dan [VerfasserIn]
Zhou, Jun-Hua [VerfasserIn]
Wu, Jie [VerfasserIn]
He, Ru-Li [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Dong-Feng [VerfasserIn]
Song, Hao [VerfasserIn]
Li, Wen-Wei [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

ATP supply
Antibiotic resistance genes
Bacterial motility
Environmental persistence
Journal Article
Natural transformation
Phthalates

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 16.04.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status Publisher

doi:

10.1021/acs.est.4c02751

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM37113059X