The factors controlling antibiotic resistance genes in different treatment processes of mainstream full-scale wastewater treatment plants

Zimu Wang; Li Fu; Ji-Dong Gu; Shihuai Deng; Chengyi Huang; Ling Luo

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165815

The factors controlling antibiotic resistance genes in different treatment processes of mainstream full-scale wastewater treatment plants

Zimu Wang, Li Fu, Ji-Dong Gu, Shihuai Deng, Chengyi Huang, Ling Luo^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Environmental Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

The alteration of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in wastewater has been less studied in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), making it difficult to assess ARGs' spreading risk comprehensively. Therefore, this study investigated the distribution and reduction of ARGs in the main process (Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic with Membrane Bio-Reactor (A2/O + MBR), Oxidation Ditch with sedimentation (OD), and Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS) with sedimentation) and disinfection process (Ultra-violet and Chlorination) of full-scale WWTPs. The wastewater was sampled before and after the different main process and disinfection process; then, the diversity and abundance of ARGs and mobile genetic genes (MGEs, helping the horizontal transfer of ARGs) in wastewater of different treatment stages were determined by a real-time high-throughput quantitative PCR (HT-qPCR) system. It was found that similar influents would result in similar ARGs in wastewater samples, independent of the treatment processes used. The main process could effectively reduce the abundance of ARGs and MGEs by 1.80–2.12 and 1.46–2.18 logarithm units, respectively. The main factors affecting ARG were mainly wastewater quality index, especially COD, and MGEs like transposase and insertion sequences which were significantly associated with 66 and 48 subtypes of ARGs, respectively. Moreover, disinfection was more effective than the main process in inactivating antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB), and the removal rate of ARB by disinfection reached 43.53 %–100 %. However, there are still risks of ARB regeneration (up to 4.22 log units) in the effluent of WWTPs. In the future, nutrient removal and disinfection process improvement is necessary to benefit ARG and ARB removal.

Original language	English
Journal	Science of the Total Environment
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165815
State	E-pub ahead of print - 26 Jul 2023

Keywords

Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic (A2/O)
Oxidation Ditch (OD)
Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS)
Ultra-violet
Chlorination
Mobile genetic elements

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10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165815

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@article{11700731ffd949d9b884ee506d8c8123,

title = "The factors controlling antibiotic resistance genes in different treatment processes of mainstream full-scale wastewater treatment plants",

abstract = "The alteration of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in wastewater has been less studied in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), making it difficult to assess ARGs' spreading risk comprehensively. Therefore, this study investigated the distribution and reduction of ARGs in the main process (Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic with Membrane Bio-Reactor (A2/O + MBR), Oxidation Ditch with sedimentation (OD), and Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS) with sedimentation) and disinfection process (Ultra-violet and Chlorination) of full-scale WWTPs. The wastewater was sampled before and after the different main process and disinfection process; then, the diversity and abundance of ARGs and mobile genetic genes (MGEs, helping the horizontal transfer of ARGs) in wastewater of different treatment stages were determined by a real-time high-throughput quantitative PCR (HT-qPCR) system. It was found that similar influents would result in similar ARGs in wastewater samples, independent of the treatment processes used. The main process could effectively reduce the abundance of ARGs and MGEs by 1.80–2.12 and 1.46–2.18 logarithm units, respectively. The main factors affecting ARG were mainly wastewater quality index, especially COD, and MGEs like transposase and insertion sequences which were significantly associated with 66 and 48 subtypes of ARGs, respectively. Moreover, disinfection was more effective than the main process in inactivating antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB), and the removal rate of ARB by disinfection reached 43.53 %–100 %. However, there are still risks of ARB regeneration (up to 4.22 log units) in the effluent of WWTPs. In the future, nutrient removal and disinfection process improvement is necessary to benefit ARG and ARB removal.",

keywords = "Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic (A2/O), Oxidation Ditch (OD), Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS), Ultra-violet, Chlorination, Mobile genetic elements",

author = "Zimu Wang and Li Fu and Ji-Dong Gu and Shihuai Deng and Chengyi Huang and Ling Luo",

year = "2023",

month = jul,

day = "26",

doi = "10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165815",

language = "英语",

journal = "Science of the Total Environment",

issn = "0048-9697",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The factors controlling antibiotic resistance genes in different treatment processes of mainstream full-scale wastewater treatment plants

AU - Wang, Zimu

AU - Fu, Li

AU - Gu, Ji-Dong

AU - Deng, Shihuai

AU - Huang, Chengyi

AU - Luo, Ling

PY - 2023/7/26

Y1 - 2023/7/26

N2 - The alteration of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in wastewater has been less studied in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), making it difficult to assess ARGs' spreading risk comprehensively. Therefore, this study investigated the distribution and reduction of ARGs in the main process (Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic with Membrane Bio-Reactor (A2/O + MBR), Oxidation Ditch with sedimentation (OD), and Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS) with sedimentation) and disinfection process (Ultra-violet and Chlorination) of full-scale WWTPs. The wastewater was sampled before and after the different main process and disinfection process; then, the diversity and abundance of ARGs and mobile genetic genes (MGEs, helping the horizontal transfer of ARGs) in wastewater of different treatment stages were determined by a real-time high-throughput quantitative PCR (HT-qPCR) system. It was found that similar influents would result in similar ARGs in wastewater samples, independent of the treatment processes used. The main process could effectively reduce the abundance of ARGs and MGEs by 1.80–2.12 and 1.46–2.18 logarithm units, respectively. The main factors affecting ARG were mainly wastewater quality index, especially COD, and MGEs like transposase and insertion sequences which were significantly associated with 66 and 48 subtypes of ARGs, respectively. Moreover, disinfection was more effective than the main process in inactivating antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB), and the removal rate of ARB by disinfection reached 43.53 %–100 %. However, there are still risks of ARB regeneration (up to 4.22 log units) in the effluent of WWTPs. In the future, nutrient removal and disinfection process improvement is necessary to benefit ARG and ARB removal.

AB - The alteration of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in wastewater has been less studied in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), making it difficult to assess ARGs' spreading risk comprehensively. Therefore, this study investigated the distribution and reduction of ARGs in the main process (Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic with Membrane Bio-Reactor (A2/O + MBR), Oxidation Ditch with sedimentation (OD), and Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS) with sedimentation) and disinfection process (Ultra-violet and Chlorination) of full-scale WWTPs. The wastewater was sampled before and after the different main process and disinfection process; then, the diversity and abundance of ARGs and mobile genetic genes (MGEs, helping the horizontal transfer of ARGs) in wastewater of different treatment stages were determined by a real-time high-throughput quantitative PCR (HT-qPCR) system. It was found that similar influents would result in similar ARGs in wastewater samples, independent of the treatment processes used. The main process could effectively reduce the abundance of ARGs and MGEs by 1.80–2.12 and 1.46–2.18 logarithm units, respectively. The main factors affecting ARG were mainly wastewater quality index, especially COD, and MGEs like transposase and insertion sequences which were significantly associated with 66 and 48 subtypes of ARGs, respectively. Moreover, disinfection was more effective than the main process in inactivating antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB), and the removal rate of ARB by disinfection reached 43.53 %–100 %. However, there are still risks of ARB regeneration (up to 4.22 log units) in the effluent of WWTPs. In the future, nutrient removal and disinfection process improvement is necessary to benefit ARG and ARB removal.

KW - Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic (A2/O)

KW - Oxidation Ditch (OD)

KW - Cyclic Activated Sludge System (CASS)

KW - Ultra-violet

KW - Chlorination

KW - Mobile genetic elements

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165815

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165815

M3 - 文章

SN - 0048-9697

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

ER -

The factors controlling antibiotic resistance genes in different treatment processes of mainstream full-scale wastewater treatment plants

Abstract

Keywords

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