Abstract

Sewage and fecal pollution cause antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) pollution in urban lagoons. Seasonality also affects ARG dynamics. However, knowledge of factors controlling ARG community assembly across seasons is still limited. Here, we revealed the seasonal variation of ARGs and depict the underlying assembly processes and drivers via high-throughput quantitative PCR in an urban lagoon, China. A higher richness and abundance of ARGs were observed in summer and winter compared to spring and fall (Kruskal-Wallis test, P < 0.05). Both ARG and prokaryotic communities were mainly governed by stochastic processes, however, these processes drove ARGs and prokaryotes differently across seasons. Stochastic processes played a more dominant role in shaping ARG communities in summer (average stochasticity: 83%) and winter (75%), resulting in a stable antibiotic resistome. However, no such seasonal pattern of stochastic processes was determined for prokaryotes, indicating a decoupling of the assembly process of ARGs and prokaryotes. Moreover, fecal microorganisms (e.g., Bacteroidetes and Faecalibacterium) mediated the stochastic processes of ARG profiles, via enhancement of prokaryotic biomass and mobile genetic element abundances. The tnpA-07 transposase was the key for the horizontal gene transfer. These findings will enhance our understanding of how fecal pollution shapes ARG community assembly in urban lagoons.

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