Response of ammonia‐oxidizing archaea and bacteria to streptomycin sulfate and penicillin in coastal wetlands along the Bohai Rim

Abstract

Antibiotics are pollutants that are constantly discharged into ocean and coastal wetlands and affect the growth and activity of microorganisms. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB), which are very important in the global nitrogen cycle, are affected by antibiotics in the environment as well. Antibiotics have different influences on AOA and AOB microbial communities due to their different biochemical compositions and metabolic mechanisms, which change the ammoniaoxidizing process in different environments. In this study, 62 samples from four typical coastal wetland types along the Bohai Rim were collected and treated with streptomycin sulfate and penicillin in the laboratory. The total ammonia oxidation rate decreased by 61.2-84.0% with streptomycin sulfate and decreased by 50.0-74.5% with penicillin. The significant change in abundance and community structure indicated that AOB were more inhibited than AOA by streptomycin sulfate and penicillin. Nevertheless, ecological network analysis verified that the internal association in the AOA community was more fragile than that in the AOB community. Moreover, the relationship between AOA and other nitrogen-transforming functional archaea weakened in the presence of antibiotics, while AOB established relationships with more nitrogen-transforming functional bacteria in the presence of antibiotics. Streptomycin sulfate had a stronger effect than penicillin due to the different inhibiting mechanisms of these antibiotics and the promotion of interspecific cooperation induced by penicillin in AOA.

Effect of the Sulfamethazine on Nitrogen Conversion in Alternate Wet and Dry Paddy Fields

“…All the microorganisms involved in this study were nitrifying and denitrifying microorganism. However, they responded to NH 4 + and NO 3 − differently, and some studies found that AOA amoA and AOB amoA, nirS, and nirK respond to environmental factors differently [69,73]. This study further demonstrates that even microbiota with the same nitrogen conversion gene respond significantly differently to environmental factors such as NH 4 + , NO 3 − , and antibiotics.…”

“…It is worth noting that, except for AOA amoA, A3W2 showed significant differences in the community structures of the other three genes. Although there is a lack of direct evidence that the community structure of AOA amoA is more stable than AOB amoA under the impact of antibiotics, AOA has been found to be insensitive to antibiotics [68,69]. The results of this study show that sulfamethazine has a stronger effect on the nitrogen conversion microbial community and nitrogen conversion at a mild AWD.…”