Genes of past, present and future: does legacy pollution contribute to antibiotic resistance in industrialised estuaries?

抗生素耐药细菌的发展削弱了抗生素的功效，以至于在水、海滩和海鲜中遇到了难以治疗的病原体。虽然医学和农业中抗生素的不当使用造成了这一问题，但有证据表明，工业污染（如有机物和重金属污染物）在AR的发展中起着重要作用。过去的工业污染在环境中的残留污染是否会继续威胁现在和未来的公众/环境健康？许多化学物质在自然界中确实会降解；然而，某些特征，例如持久性多环芳烃（PAH）和重金属可以留在沉积物中，为常驻微生物提供持续的压力。细菌有能力获得和传播应对化学胁迫的机制；其中一些机制与提供抗生素耐药性的基因类似或密切相关（遗传上）。因此，金属（例如）的存在会导致细菌庇护和传播这些应激反应基因。在这个项目中，我们将在格拉斯哥附近克莱德河口的前/现工业区获取沉积物岩心。我们将确定沉积层中的化学特征，并使用放射性（铅和铯）评估来确定“污染年龄”。同时，我们将描述常驻细菌种群（通过16S-rRNA分析）和它们所携带的抗性基因类型（金属和抗生素），以确定污染区域是否存在风险。能够比较沉积物分层层之间和河口沿岸不同位置之间的不同污染情况；这将使我们能够确定微生物群落中对抗性性状的影响因素。本研究将有助于我们更好地了解工业污染的相关风险，并对污染控制和修复策略产生影响。

Development of antibiotic resistant (AR) bacteria diminishes the efficacy of antibiotics to the point that difficult-to-treat pathogens are encountered in water, beaches and seafood. Although the inappropriate use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture contributes to the problem, there is evidence that industrial pollution (e.g., organics and heavy-metal pollutants) have a strong role in AR development.Can residual pollution in the environment from past industrial pollution continue to threaten present and future public/environmental health? Many chemicals do degrade in nature; however, certain signatures, e.g., persistent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metals can remain in sediments providing continual stress to resident microorganisms.Bacteria have the ability to acquire and disseminate mechanisms to deal with chemical stress; some of these mechanisms are either analogous or closely-linked (genetically) to genes to that provide antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the presence of metals (for example) can cause bacteria to harbour and spread these stress-response genes.In this project, we will obtain sediment cores in former/current industrial areas along the Clyde estuary near Glasgow. We will determine chemical signatures in sediment layers and use radiometric (lead and caesium) assessment to determine "pollution age". Simultaneously, we will characterise the resident bacterial populations (via 16S-rRNA analysis) and types of resistance genes (metal and antibiotic) that they harbour to determine whether risk exist in zones of pollution.Having the ability to compare different pollution conditions among stratified layers in the sediment and among different locations along the estuary; it will allow us to determine contributing factors towards resistance traits in microbial communities. This research will better inform us the risks associated with industrial pollution, and it can influence pollution-control and remediation strategies.