Elevated CO2 alters antibiotic resistome in soil amended with sulfamethazine via chemical-organic fertilization

Fen Xu; Qian Xiang; Mei-Ling Xu; Laura J Carter; Wen-Chao Du; Chun-Wu Zhu; Fu-Xun Ai; Ying Yin; Rong Ji; Hong-Yan Guo

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2024.120416

Elevated CO₂ alters antibiotic resistome in soil amended with sulfamethazine via chemical-organic fertilization

Environ Res. 2025 Jan 1;264(Pt 2):120416. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.120416. Epub 2024 Nov 23.

Authors

Fen Xu¹, Qian Xiang², Mei-Ling Xu³, Laura J Carter⁴, Wen-Chao Du⁵, Chun-Wu Zhu⁶, Fu-Xun Ai³, Ying Yin³, Rong Ji³, Hong-Yan Guo⁷

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China; Institute of Agricultural Quality Standards and Testing Technology Research, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Hubei Key Laboratory of Nutritional Quality and Safety of Agro-Products, Wuhan, 430064, China.
² Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, China; Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Urban Environmental Processes and Pollution Control, CAS Haixi Industrial Technology Innovation Center in Beilun, Ningbo, 315830, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
⁴ School of Geography, Faculty of Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
⁵ School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing, 210008, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China. Electronic address: hyguo@nju.edu.cn.

PMID: 39581254
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.120416

Abstract

Rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an enormous challenge for global healthcare systems. The effects of elevated CO₂ (eCO₂) on AMR are poorly characterized. Using a free-air CO₂ enrichment system and high-throughput qPCR arrays, we investigated the response of soil antibiotic resistome and bacterial communities to eCO₂ (ambient + 200 ppm) in soils amended with sulfamethazine (SMZ) at 0.1 and 1 mg kg^-1 via chemical-organic fertilizer (COL, COH). Results showed that under ambient condition, COH significantly enhanced the diversity of high-risk antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), relative abundance of low risk ARGs, unassessed ARGs and total ARGs compared to COL. Nevertheless, eCO₂ mitigated the effects of COH, with no significant difference found between COL and COH on the above high risk, low risk, unassessed and total ARGs. Meanwhile, eCO₂ decreased the relative abundance of spcN, ermA, olec, oprD, sulA-olP, tetB, tetT and vanXD in COL, and alleviated the enrichment of pikR2, ampC, lunC, oprD and pncA caused by the application of SMZ at 1 mg kg^-1. Correlation and network analysis illustrated that changes of certain bacteria biomarkers and horizontal gene transfer of integrase gene were associated with the altered response of ARGs abundance to eCO₂. This study adds knowledge of the potential risk of antibiotic resistance in agricultural exposure scenarios under increasing CO₂ concentration.

Keywords: Antibiotics resistance genes; Chemical-organic fertilizer; Free-air CO(2) enrichment; Soil bacterial community; Sulfamethazine.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
Bacteria / drug effects
Bacteria / genetics
Carbon Dioxide*
Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics
Fertilizers* / analysis
Genes, Bacterial / drug effects
Soil Microbiology*
Soil* / chemistry
Sulfamethazine*

Substances

Sulfamethazine
Fertilizers
Carbon Dioxide
Soil
Anti-Bacterial Agents