Impact of Wastewater Treatment on the Prevalence of Integrons and the Genetic Diversity of Integron Gene Cassettes.

ABSTRACT: The integron platform allows the acquisition, expression, and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes within gene cassettes. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) contain abundant resistance genes; however, knowledge about the impacts of wastewater treatment on integrons and their gene cassettes is limited. In this study, by using clone library analysis and high-throughput sequencing, we investigated the abundance of class 1, 2, and 3 integrons and their corresponding gene cassettes in three urban WWTPs. Our results showed that class 1 integrons were most abundant in WWTPs and that wastewater treatment significantly reduced the abundance of all integrons. The WWTP influents harbored the highest diversity of class 1 integron gene cassettes, whereas class 3 integron gene cassettes exhibit

SUBMITTER: An XL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5930335 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature