Environmental Antibiotic Resistance Dynamics in Aquatic Systems
Summary
Antibiotic resistance in aquatic environments has emerged as a critical intersection of human health, ecosystem integrity and global sanitation. Natural waters receive antibiotic residues, resistant bacteria and resistance‐conferring genetic elements from multiple sources, including hospital and urban effluents, agricultural runoff and improperly treated wastewater. Within rivers, lakes and coastal areas, these inputs foster complex microbial communities in which resistance genes proliferate, transfer between species and persist despite dilution. Seasonal variations, physicochemical conditions and treatment processes modulate the abundance and diversity of resistance determinants. Understanding the interplay of pollutant load, microbial ecology and hydrodynamics is essential to predict hotspots of resistance evolution, to assess risks to human and animal populations and to guide the design of more effective mitigation strategies in water treatment and environmental management.
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Environmental Antibiotic Resistance Dynamics in Aquatic Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in environmental antibiotic resistance dynamics in aquatic systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Antibiotic resistance gene (ARG): A segment of DNA that encodes a protein or mechanism enabling a bacterium to survive exposure to a specific antibiotic.
Effluent: Treated or untreated wastewater discharged from point sources such as sewage treatment plants, hospitals or industrial facilities into natural water bodies.
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT): The movement of genetic material, including resistance genes, between bacteria by transformation, transduction or conjugation rather than by descent.
Metagenomics: A culture-independent sequencing approach to analyse collective genomes of microbial communities, revealing resistome composition and dynamics.
Plasmid: A self-replicating, often circular, extra-chromosomal DNA molecule that can carry and disseminate antibiotic resistance determinants among bacterial populations.
References
- Hospital effluent: A reservoir for carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales?. The Science of The Total Environment (2019).
- Prevalence and Fate of Carbapenemase Genes in a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Northern China. PLOS ONE (2016).
- Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae and Aeromonas spp. present in wastewater treatment plant effluent and nearby surface waters in the US. PLOS ONE (2019).
- The Prevalence and Characterization of Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase- and Carbapenemase-Producing Bacteria from Hospital Sewage, Treated Effluents and Receiving Rivers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2020).
- Whole genome sequencing reveals resemblance between ESBL-producing and carbapenem resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from Austrian rivers and clinical isolates from hospitals. The Science of The Total Environment (2019).
- Related carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella isolates detected in both a hospital and associated aquatic environment in Sweden. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (2018).
- Whole genome sequencing snapshot of multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strains from hospitals and receiving wastewater treatment plants in Southern Romania. PLOS ONE (2020).
- Indistinguishable NDM-producing Escherichia coli isolated from recreational waters, sewage, and a clinical specimen in Ireland, 2016 to 2017. Eurosurveillance (2017).
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