Environmental risk characteristics of bacterial antibiotic resistome in Antarctic krill

• Published in: Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
• Main Authors: Yuanyuan Wang, Lingbo Ma, Jian He, Zhili He, Muhua Wang, Zixuan Liu, Zhimin Li, Lumin Wang, Shaoping Weng, Changjun Guo, Jianguo He
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2022
• Subjects: Antarctica; Antibiotic resistance genes; Antarctic krill; Ecological risks; Environmental pollution; TD172-193.5; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Krill
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113289; https://doaj.org/article/b874330e47aa41658e2029cf4e5b49e0

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are ubiquitous in nature, especially in the current era of antibiotic abuse, and their existence is a global concern. In the present study, we discovered that Antarctic krill-related culturable bacteria are resistant to β-lactam, tetracyclines, aminoglycosides, and sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim based on the antibiotic efflux mechanism. In addition, the co-occurrence of ARGs with insertion sequence (IS) (tnpA, IS91) and Intl1 on the isolates and the phylogenetic analysis results of the whole-genome revealed low-frequency ARG transfer events, implying the transferability of these ARGs. These findings provide an early warning for the wide assessment of Antarctic microbiota in the spread of ARGs. Our work provides novel insights into understanding ARGs in culturable host-associated microorganisms, and their ecological risks and has important implications for future risk assessments of antibiotic resistance in extreme environments.