Metagenomic Assembly Insight into the Antibiotic Resistance Genes and Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in Packaged Drinking Water System

Abstract

The widespread use of antibiotics has led to an increasing spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARB). However, the distribution and composition of ARGs and ARB in packaged drinking water system (PDWS) is unknown. In this study, metagenomics was used to characterize the occurrence and abundance of ARGs and ARB in a PDWS. Meanwhile, antimicrobial susceptibility testing was used to characterize the antibiotic resistance of bacteria. The results indicated that a total of 1136 ARG subtypes belonging to 27 ARG types were detected. Bin analysis indicated that binMF.85 contained the largest number of ARG subtypes (n=43). A total of fifty-eight strains were isolated from PDWS, and Sphingomonas (13.79%) and Methylobacterium (13.79%) were the most abundant genera in all isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed that 72% of the representative isolates belonged to MDR. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that monitors the presence and distribution of antibiotic resistance in PDWS using metagenomics.

Keywords: packaged drinking water system, antibiotic resistance genes, antibiotic resistantbacteria, metagenomic