Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been regarded as emerging contaminants and have attracted growing attention owing to their widespread presence in the environment. In addition to the well-documented selective pressure of antibiotics, ARGs have also become prevalent because of anthropogenic impacts. Coastal habitats are located between terrestrial and marine ecosystems, which are a hotspot for anthropogenic impacts. Excessive accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has posed a serious threat to coastal habitats, but no information is available on the effect of PAHs on antibiotic resistance in the microbial community of coastal environments. In this study, the effect of two typical PAHs, naphthalene and phenanthrene, on antibiotic resistance propagation was investigated in a coastal microbial community. The results indicated that the presence of 100 mg/L of naphthalene or 10 mg/L of phenanthrene significantly enhanced the abundance of class I integrase gene (intI1), sulfanilamide resistance gene (sulI), and aminoglycosides resistance gene (aadA2) in the microbial community. Horizontal gene transfer experiment demonstrated that increased abundance of ARGs was primarily a result of conjugative transfer mediated by class I integrons. These findings provided direct evidence that coastal microbial community exposed to PAHs might have resulted in the dissemination of ARGs and implied that a more comprehensive risk assessment of PAHs to natural ecosystems and public health is necessary.

中文翻译：

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多环芳烃加速了抗生素抗性基因在沿海水域微生物群落中的传播^☆

抗生素抗性基因（ARG）被认为是新兴的污染物，由于其在环境中的广泛存在而引起了越来越多的关注。除了有据可查的抗生素选择性压力外，由于人为因素的影响，ARG也很普遍。沿海生境位于陆地和海洋生态系统之间，这是人为影响的热点。多环芳烃（PAHs）的过度积累对沿海生境构成了严重威胁，但尚无关于PAHs对沿海环境微生物群落中抗生素耐药性影响的信息。在这项研究中，在沿海微生物群落中研究了两种典型的多环芳烃（萘和菲）对抗生素耐药性传播的影响。intI1），磺胺抗性基因（sulI）和氨基糖苷类抗性基因（aadA2）在微生物群落中。水平基因转移实验表明，增加的ARGs丰度主要是由I类整合素介导的共轭转移的结果。这些发现提供了直接的证据，表明暴露于多环芳烃的沿海微生物群落可能导致了ARG的传播，这意味着有必要对多环芳烃对自然生态系统和公共卫生的风险进行更全面的评估。