Responses of performance, antibiotic resistance genes and bacterial communities of partial nitrification system to polyamide microplastics

Abstract

Polyamide (PA), a prevalent microplastics (MPs), is often collected from wastewater treatment plants. However, the responses of partial nitrification system to PA MPs are unclear. The short-term and long-term effect of PA MPs on the partial nitrification system was slight, but the ammonia oxidation rate decreased slowly with the increase of PA MPs concentration. Meantime, the PA MPs addition could decrease the microbial diversity, alter microbial community structure of the system and facilitate the propagation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) including fabI, intI1 and Tn916/1545. Correlation analysis and network analysis indicated that Ferruginibacter, Hyphomicrobium, Terrimonas, Brevundimonas and Plasticicumulans in the system might be the dominant hosts of ARGs. In addition, oligotyping analysis indicated not all oligotypes of the relevant genus showed positive correlation with ARGs. In general, PA MPs had almost no effect on performance but altered community structure and increased ARGs spread risk of the partial nitrification system.