Residual chlorine disrupts the microbial communities and spreads antibiotic resistance in freshwater

JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

卷:423

Article

Zhang, Zhenyan¹  Zhang, Qi¹  Lu, Tao¹  Zhang, Jieyu¹  Sun, Liwei¹  Hu, Baolan²  Hu, Jun¹  Penuelas, Josep^3,4  Zhu, Lizhong^2,5  Qian, Haifeng¹ 

[1] Zhejiang Univ Technol, Coll Environm, Hangzhou 310032, Zhejiang, Peoples R China

[2] Zhejiang Univ, Dept Environm Sci, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, Peoples R China

[3] CSIC, Global Ecol Unit, CREAF CSIC UAB, Barcelona 08193, Catalonia, Spain

[4] CREAF, Barcelona 08193, Spain

[5] Zhejiang Prov Key Lab Organ Pollut Proc & Control, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang, Peoples R China

关键词: Residual chlorine;    Aquatic toxicity;    Microbial community;    Ecotoxicity;    Antibiotic-resistance genes;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127152

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Chlorine disinfection is a key global public health strategy for the prevention and control of diseases, such as COVID-19. However, little is known about effects of low levels of residual chlorine on freshwater microbial communities and antibiotic resistomes. Here, we treated freshwater microcosms with continuous low concentrations of chlorine and quantified the effects on aquatic and zebrafish intestinal microbial communities and antibiotic resistomes, using shotgun metagenome and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Although chlorine rapidly degraded, it altered the aquatic microbial community composition over time and disrupted interactions among microbes, leading to decreases in community complexity and stability. However, community diversity was unaffected. The majority of ecological functions, particularly metabolic capacities, recovered after treatment with chlorine for 14 d, due to microbial community redundancy. There were also increased levels of antibiotic resistance gene dissemination by horizontal and vertical gene transfer under chlorine treatment. Although the zebrafish intestinal microbial community recovered from temporary dysbiosis, growth and behavior of zebrafish adults were negatively affected by chlorine. Overall, our findings demonstrate the negative effects of residual chlorine on freshwater ecosystems and highlight a possible long-term risk to public health.

【 授权许可】

Free