ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE GENE POLLUTION IN THE CODE RIVER, INDONESIA. ARG in Indonesia

To fill the gap of knowledge on environmental antibiotic resistance in low-middle income countries, this study is the first reporting the quantitative data of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in surface water of Code River, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In May 2017 during dry season, we collected three biological replicates of surface water from eight sites starting from spring water following the river to estuary. We used the Illumina 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to profile the bacterial community and the SmartChip quantitative PCR with 384 assays for the profiling of ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in each sample. Our study shows different anthropogenic activities resulted ARG and MGE pollution in the Code River. Most of the ARGs were diluted in the estuary compared to sites at the river upstream although some genes which are associated with MGEs were persistent and abundant. ARGs encoding resistance to common antibiotics used to treat humans were increased even at the estuary but ARGs to vancomycin, an antibiotic that is strictly used at hospitals, were rarely found in the river samples. The profiles of ARGs were correlated with the bacterial communities suggesting changes in the ARG profiles due to the shift of bacterial communities in the river.