Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in municipal drinking water may not be effectively removed during centralized treatment. To reduce potential health risks, water disinfection at the point-of-use scale is warranted. This study investigated the performance of boiling, a prevalent household water disinfection means, in response to ARGs contamination. We found that boiling was more efficient in inactivating both Escherichia coli and environmental bacteria compared to chlorination and pasteurization. Boiling of environmental bacteria suspension removed a much broader spectrum of ARGs and mobile genetic elements (up to 141 genes) than chlorination (up to 13 genes), such better performance was largely attributed to a stronger inactivation of chlorine-tolerant bacteria including Acinetobacter and Bacillus. Accumulation of extracellular ARGs was found during low-temperature heating (≤ 80°C) and in the initial stage of chlorination (first 3 min when initial chlorine was 5 mg/L and first 12 min when initial chlorine was 1 mg/L). These extracellular ARGs as well as the intracellular ARGs got removed as the heating temperature increased or the chlorination time prolonged. Under the same treatment time (30 min), high-temperature heating (≥ 90.1°C) damaged the DNA structure more thoroughly than chlorination (5 mg/L). Taking into account the low transferability of ARGs after DNA melting, boiling may provide an effective point-of-use approach to attenuating bacterial ARGs in drinking water and is still worth promoting in the future.

城市饮用水中的抗生素抗性基因（ARG）在集中处理过程中可能无法有效去除。为了减少潜在的健康风险，有必要在使用点进行水消毒。本研究调查了煮沸（一种流行的家庭水消毒方法）对 ARGs 污染的反应效果。我们发现，与氯化和巴氏灭菌相比，煮沸可以更有效地灭活大肠杆菌和环境细菌。环境细菌悬浮液的煮沸去除了比氯化（最多 13 个基因）更广泛的 ARG 和移动遗传元件（最多 141 个基因），这种更好的性能很大程度上归因于对包括不动杆菌和芽孢杆菌在内的耐氯细菌更强的灭活作用。低温加热（≤80℃）和加氯初期（初始氯为5mg/L时前3分钟，初始氯为1mg/L时前12分钟）发现细胞外ARG积累。随着加热温度的升高或氯化时间的延长，这些细胞外的ARG以及细胞内的ARG被去除。相同处理时间（30 min）下，高温加热（≥90.1℃）比氯化（5 mg/L）对DNA结构的破坏更彻底。考虑到 DNA 熔化后 ARG 的转移性较低，煮沸可能提供一种有效的使用点方法来减弱饮用水中的细菌 ARG，并且在未来仍然值得推广。