Biological and synthetic surfactant exposure increases antimicrobial gene occurrence in a freshwater mixed microbial biofilm environment

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorGill, Stephanie P.
dc.contributor.authorSnelling, William J.
dc.contributor.authorDooley, James S. G.
dc.contributor.authorTernan, Nigel G.
dc.contributor.authorBanat, Ibrahim M.
dc.contributor.authorArnscheidt, Joerg
dc.contributor.authorHunter, Billy
dc.date.accessioned2023-03-21T16:04:30Z
dc.date.available2023-03-21T16:04:30Z
dc.date.issued2023-03-17
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 8 March 2023; Published - 17 March 2023.
dc.description.abstractAquatic habitats are particularly susceptible to chemical pollution, such as antimicrobials, from domestic, agricultural, and industrial sources. This has led to the rapid increase of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene prevalence. Alternate approaches to counteract pathogenic bacteria are in development including synthetic and biological surfactants such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and rhamnolipids. In the aquatic environment, these surfactants may be present as pollutants with the potential to affect biofilm formation and AMR gene occurrence. We tested the effects of rhamnolipid and SDS on aquatic biofilms in a freshwater stream in Northern Ireland. We grew biofilms on contaminant exposure substrates deployed within the stream over 4 weeks. We then extracted DNA and carried out shotgun sequencing using a MinION portable sequencer to determine microbial community composition, with 16S rRNA analyses (64,678 classifiable reads identified), and AMR gene occurrence (81 instances of AMR genes over 9 AMR gene classes) through a metagenomic analysis. There were no significant changes in community composition within all systems; however, biofilm exposed to rhamnolipid had a greater number of unique taxa as compared to SDS treatments and controls. AMR gene prevalence was higher in surfactant-treated biofilms, although not significant, with biofilm exposed to rhamnolipids having the highest presence of AMR genes and classes compared to the control or SDS treatments. Our results suggest that the presence of rhamnolipid encourages an increase in the prevalence of AMR genes in biofilms produced in mixed-use water bodies.
dc.description.sponsorshipEPSRC, Grant/Award Number: EP/P032427/1; University of Ulster
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/531
dc.identifier.citationGill, S.P., Snelling, W.J., Dooley, J.S.G., Ternan, N.G., Banat, I.M., Arnscheidt, J. and Hunter, W.R. (2023) ‘Biological and synthetic surfactant exposure increases antimicrobial gene occurrence in a freshwater mixed microbial biofilm environment’, MicrobiologyOpen. Wiley. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.1351
dc.identifier.issn2045-8827 (electronic)
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.1351
dc.language.isoen
dc.rights© 2023 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
dc.subject16S rRNA
dc.subjectAMR gene
dc.subjectaquatic
dc.subjectbiofilm
dc.subjectrhamnolipid
dc.subjectsurfactant
dc.titleBiological and synthetic surfactant exposure increases antimicrobial gene occurrence in a freshwater mixed microbial biofilm environment
dc.typeArticle
dcterms.dateAccepted2023-03-08
dcterms.dateSubmitted2023-02-10

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Biological and synthetic surfactant exposure increases antimicrobial gene occurrence in a freshwater mixed microbial biofilm environment.pdf
Size:
1.41 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Final published version
Download

Collections

Journal Articles