Association of antibiotic resistance in agricultural Escherichia coli isolates with attachment to quartz

Modeling the vertical transport of antibiotic resistance genes in agricultural soils following manure application

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) may be introduced to agricultural soil through the land application of cattle manure. During a rainfall event, manure-borne ARGs may infiltrate into subsurface soil and leach into groundwater. The objective of this study was to characterize and model the vertical transport of manure-borne ARGs through soil following the land application of beef cattle manure on soil surface. In this study, soil column experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of manure application on subsurface transport of four ARGs: erm(C), erm(F), tet(O) and tet(Q). An attachment-detachment model with the decay of ARGs in the soil was used to simulate the breakthrough of ARGs in leachates from the control column (without manure) and treatment (with manure) soil columns. Results showed that the first-order attachment coefficient (k_a) was five to six orders of magnitude higher in the treatment column than in the control column. Conversely, the first-order detachment and decay coefficients (k_d and μ_s) were not significantly changed due to manure application. These findings suggest that in areas where manure is land-applied, some manure-borne bacteria-associated ARGs will be attached to the soil, instead of leaching to groundwater in near terms.

Distribution of genetic elements associated with antibiotic resistance in treated and untreated animal husbandry waste and wastewater

Animal breeding for meat production based on swine, cattle, poultry, and aquaculture is an activity that generates several impacts on the environment, among them the spread of antibiotic resistance. There is a worldwide concern related to the massive use of antibiotics, which causes selective pressure on the microbial community, triggering bacteria that contain "antibiotic resistance genes." According to the survey here presented, antibiotic resistance-related genes such as tetracyclines (tet), erythromycin (erm), and sulfonamides (sul), as well as the genetic mobile element interferon (int), are the most reported genetic elements in qualitative and quantitative studies of swine, cattle, poultry, and aquaculture manure/wastewater. It has been observed that biological treatments based on waste composting and anaerobic digestion are effective in ARG removal, particularly for tet, bla, erm, and qnr (quinolone) genes. On the other hand, sul and intI genes were more persistent in such treatments. Tertiary treatments, such advanced oxidative processes, are suitable strategies to improve ARG reduction. In general temperature, hydraulic retention time, and penetration of sunlight are the main operational parameters for ARG reduction in treatments applied to animal waste, and therefore attention should be addressed to optimize their efficacy regarding ARG removal. Despite being reduced, the presence of ARG in treated effluents and in biosolids indicates that there is a potential risk of antibiotic resistance spread in nature, especially through the release of treated livestock waste into the environment.

Impact factors of the accumulation, migration and spread of antibiotic resistance in the environment

Antibiotic resistance is a great concern, which leads to global public health risks and ecological and environmental risks. The presence of antibiotic-resistant genes and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment exacerbates the risk of spreading antibiotic resistance. Among them, horizontal gene transfer is an important mode in the spread of antibiotic resistance genes, and it is one of the reasons that the antibiotic resistance pollution has become increasingly serious. At the same time, free antibiotic resistance genes and resistance gene host bacterial also exist in the natural environment. They can not only affect horizontal gene transfer, but can also migrate and aggregate among environmental media in many ways and then continue to affect the proliferate and transfer of antibiotic resistance genes. All this shows the seriousness of antibiotic resistance pollution. Therefore, in this review, we reveal the sensitive factors affecting the distribution and spread of antibiotic resistance through three aspects: the influencing factors of horizontal gene transfer, the host bacteria of resistance genes and the migration of antibiotic resistance between environmental media. This review reveals the huge role of environmental migration in the spread of antibiotic resistance, and the environmental behavior of antibiotic resistance deserves wider attention. Meanwhile, extracellular antibiotic resistance genes and intracellular antibiotic resistance genes play different roles, so they should be studied separately.

Allelic Variation in Outer Membrane Protein A and Its Influence on Attachment of Escherichia coli to Corn Stover

Understanding the genetic factors that govern microbe-sediment interactions in aquatic environments is important for water quality management and reduction of waterborne disease outbreaks. Although chemical properties of bacteria have been identified that contribute to initiation of attachment, the outer membrane proteins that contribute to these chemical properties still remain unclear. In this study we explored the attachment of 78 Escherichia coli environmental isolates to corn stover, a representative agricultural residue. Outer membrane proteome analysis led to the observation of amino acid variations, some of which had not been previously described, in outer membrane protein A (OmpA) at 10 distinct locations, including each of the four extracellular loops, three of the eight transmembrane segments, the proline-rich linker and the dimerization domain. Some of the polymorphisms within loops 1, 2, and 3 were found to significantly co-occur. Grouping of sequences according to the outer loop polymorphisms revealed five distinct patterns that each occur in at least 5% of our isolates. The two most common patterns, I and II, are encoded by 33.3 and 20.5% of these isolates and differ at each of the four loops. Statistically significant differences in attachment to corn stover were observed among isolates expressing different versions of OmpA and when different versions of OmpA were expressed in the same genetic background. Most notable was the increased corn stover attachment associated with a loop 3 sequence of SNFDGKN relative to the standard SNVYGKN sequence. These results provide further insight into the allelic variation of OmpA and implicate OmpA in contributing to attachment to corn stover.

Quantifying Attachment and Antibiotic Resistance of from Conventional and Organic Swine Manure

Broad-spectrum antibiotics are often administered to swine, contributing to the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in their manure. During land application, the bacteria in swine manure preferentially attach to particles in the soil, affecting their transport in overland flow. However, a quantitative understanding of these attachment mechanisms is lacking, and their relationship to antibiotic resistance is unknown. The objective of this study is to examine the relationships between antibiotic resistance and attachment to very fine silica sand in collected from swine manure. A total of 556 isolates were collected from six farms, two organic and four conventional (antibiotics fed prophylactically). Antibiotic resistance was quantified using 13 antibiotics at three minimum inhibitory concentrations: resistant, intermediate, and susceptible. Of the 556 isolates used in the antibiotic resistance assays, 491 were subjected to an attachment assay. Results show that isolates from conventional systems were significantly more resistant to amoxicillin, ampicillin, chlortetracycline, erythromycin, kanamycin, neomycin, streptomycin, tetracycline, and tylosin ( < 0.001). Results also indicate that isolated from conventional systems attached to very fine silica sand at significantly higher levels than those from organic systems ( < 0.001). Statistical analysis showed that a significant relationship did not exist between antibiotic resistance levels and attachment in from conventional systems but did for organic systems ( < 0.001). Better quantification of these relationships is critical to understanding the behavior of in the environment and preventing exposure of human populations to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Flow cytometry is a promising and rapid method for differentiating between freely suspended Escherichia coli and E. coli attached to clay particles

AIM

A standard procedure does not exist to distinguish between attached and unattached micro-organisms. In this study, we compared two methods to quantify between Escherichia coli attached to clay particles and E. coli freely suspended in solution: flow cytometry (attachment assay and viability assay) and settling (or centrifugation followed by settling).

METHODS AND RESULTS

Methods were tested using three environmental strains collected from swine facilities (A, B and C) and one purchased modified pathogenic strain (ATCC 43888); four clay particles: Hectorite, Kaolinite, Ca-Montmorillonite, Montmorillonite K-10; and a range of surface area ratios (particle surface area to E. coli surface area). When comparing the two methods, the per cent attached obtained from the flow cytometry was lower, but not significantly different from the per cent attached obtained from the settling method for all conditions except when the particle was Hectorite or Montmorillonite K-10; when the strain was C; and when the surface area ratio was below 100. Differences between the methods are likely because traditional culture-based methods cannot detect the viable but nonculturable (VBNC) population, whereas flow cytometry can detect the fraction of VBNC with intact membranes.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate that flow cytometry is a rapid and culture-independent method for differentiating between attached and unattached micro-organisms.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

Flow cytometry is useful for laboratory-based studies of micro-organism-particle interactions.