study on accumulated dust ARGs. study on accumulated dust ARGs

As a common environmental medium, dust, enriched many harmful substances, is widely distributed in the environment and is easily accessible to humans. Among those harmful substances in dust, antibiotic resistances genes as an emerging contaminant has not attracted enough attention. Here, dust samples were collected form hospitals, malls, parks, and schools in spring and summer, 16SrRNA gene sequencing and HT-qPCR were employed to obtain information of ARGs and microbial communities in dust, for investigating the distribution, influencing factors, and potential hosts of ARGs in dust. The results revealed that distinct season affected ARGs in dust, and both the ARGs diversity and the abundance of total ARGs were higher in spring. Different places also affected ARGs of dust. The diversity of ARGs was highest in malls, follow by hospital, school and park. Additionally, MLSB, aminoglycoside and multidrug resistance genes in dust were differed in different places. For example, the abundance of multi-drug resistance genes in dust was higher in hospitals than that in schools and parks. Microorganisms and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) were recognized critical factors for ARGs in dust, and the level of ARGs was elevated by the increase of MGEs in dust based on their co-occurrence relations and results of PERMANOVA and mantel-test. furthermore, the transmission efficiency was influenced by different seasons and places. The transmission efficiency of ARGs in summer was lower than that in spring and the ARGs’ transmission efficiency in schools and parks was higher than that in hospitals. Moreover, it is noteworthy that some opportunistic pathogens, like Streptococcus、Vibrio and Pseudomonas，and high-risk ARGs，such as dfrA1、floR、tetM-01 and tetM-02, present in the dust. In addition, several opportunistic pathogens were distinguished as host of some high-risk ARGs, which perhaps exert greater threats to human health. This study revealed the risk of antibiotic resistance in dust, and suggest that clean dust timely via taking right ways, which is necessary for protecting the environment and human health.