Published In

PeerJ

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-25-2017

Subjects

Environmental Sciences, Genomics, Microbiology, Bacterial diversity -- Genetic aspects, Sewage -- Analysis, Drug resistance in microorganisms -- Genetic aspects

Abstract

We explored the bacterial diversity of untreated sewage influent samples of a wastewater treatment plant in Tucson, AZ and discovered that Arcobacter cryaerophilus, an emerging human pathogen of animal origin, was the most dominant bacterium. The other highly prevalent bacteria were members of the phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, which are major constituents of human gut microbiome, indicating that bacteria of human and animal origin intermingle in sewage. By assembling a near-complete genome of A. cryaerophilus, we show that the bacterium has accumulated a large number of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) probably enabling it to thrive in the wastewater. We also determined that a majority of ARGs was being expressed in sewage, suggestive of trace levels of antibiotics or other stresses that could act as a selective force that amplifies multidrug resistant bacteria in municipal sewage. Because all bacteria are not eliminated even after several rounds of wastewater treatment, ARGs in sewage could affect public health due to their potential to contaminate environmental water.

Description

© 2017 Millar and Raghavan

This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0

DOI

10.7717/peerj.3269

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/20166

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