Antibiotic contamination and antimicrobial resistance dynamics in the urban sewage microbiome in India.

ABSTRACT: The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in clinically important bacterial pathogens has severely compromised the effectiveness of commonly used antibiotics in healthcare. Acquisition and transmission of AMR genes (ARGs) are often facilitated by sublethal concentrations of antibiotics in microbially dense environments. In this study, we use sewage samples (n = 381) collected from six Indian states between June and December 2023 to assess the concentration of eleven antibiotics, microbial diversity, and ARG richness. We find antibiotics from seven drug classes and detect over 2000 bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs). Metagenomic (n = 220) and isolated genome sequences (n = 305) of aerobic and anaerobic bacterial species identify 82 ARGs associated with 80 mobile ge

SUBMITTER: Paul D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12867989 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature