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© 2022 Elsevier B.V. Heavy metal pollution can enhance the level of antibiotic resistance, posing concerns to ecosystem and public health. Here, we investigated heavy metal concentrations, heavy metal resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistant bacteria and their corresponding resistant genes, and integrons in four different river environments, i.e., low heavy metals and low wastewater, high heavy metals and low wastewater, low heavy metals and high wastewater, and high heavy metals and high wastewater levels. Heavy metals were found to show positive and significant correlations with heavy metal resistance and antibiotic resistance and integrons (r > 0.60, p < 0.05), indicating that heavy metal selective pressure can cause heavy metal and antibiotic resistance to be transmitted simultaneously via integrons, which can result in the development of multi-resistant bacteria in the heavy metal-polluted environments. Moreover, there were significant associations between heavy metal resistance and antibiotic resistance (r > 0.60, p < 0.05), demonstrating heavy metal and antibiotic resistance are connected via a same or related mechanism. Class 1 integrons were found to have strong correlations with heavy metals and heavy metal resistance and antibiotic resistance (r > 0.60, p < 0.05), indicating a higher occurrence of antibiotic resistance co-selection in the heavy metal-polluted environments.
Author(s): Gupta S, Graham DW, Sreekrishnan TR, Ahammad SZ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Science of the Total Environment
Year: 2023
Volume: 857
Issue: Part 1
Print publication date: 20/01/2023
Online publication date: 26/09/2022
Acceptance date: 23/09/2022
ISSN (print): 0048-9697
ISSN (electronic): 1879-1026
Publisher: Elsevier BV
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159059
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159059
PubMed id: 36174689
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