Issue 3, 2022

Toxicity assessment and microbial response to soil antibiotic exposure: differences between individual and mixed antibiotics

Abstract

Increasing amounts of antibiotics are introduced into soils, raising great concerns on their ecotoxicological impacts on the soil environment. This work investigated the individual and joint toxicity of three antibiotics, tetracycline (TC), sulfonamide (SD) and erythromycin (EM) via a whole-cell bioreporter assay. TC, SD and EM in aqueous solution demonstrated cytotoxicity, whilst soil exposure showed genotoxicity, indicating that soil particles possibly affected the bioavailability of antibiotics. Toxicity of soils exposed to TC, SD and EM changed over time, demonstrating cytotoxic effects within 14-d exposure and genotoxic effects after 30 days. Joint toxicity of TC, SD and EM in soils instead showed cytotoxicity, suggesting a synergetic effect. High-throughput sequencing suggested that the soil microbial response to individual antibiotics and their mixtures showed a different pattern. Soil microbial community composition was more sensitive to TC, in which the abundance of Pseudomonas, Pirellula, Subdivision3_genera_incertae_sedis and Gemmata varied significantly. Microbial community functions were significantly shifted by EM amendments, including signal transduction mechanisms, cytoskeleton, cell wall/membrane/envelope biogenesis, transcription, chromatin structure and dynamics, and carbohydrate transport and metabolism. This work contributes to a better understanding of the ecological effects and potential risks of individual and joint antibiotics on the soil environment.

Graphical abstract: Toxicity assessment and microbial response to soil antibiotic exposure: differences between individual and mixed antibiotics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Sep 2021
Accepted
30 Jan 2022
First published
31 Jan 2022

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2022,24, 460-473

Toxicity assessment and microbial response to soil antibiotic exposure: differences between individual and mixed antibiotics

B. Jiang, Y. Shen, X. Lu, Y. Du, N. Jin, G. Li, D. Zhang and Y. Xing, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2022, 24, 460 DOI: 10.1039/D1EM00405K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements