BEHAVIOR OF ANTIBIOTICS WITH CORRESPONDING RESISTANCE GENES IN MICROBIAL FUEL CELL WETLAND

摘要

Pollution by antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) has become a major health concern. A microbial fuel cell wetland (CW-MFC) is a new installation to simultaneously treat the wastewater and produce energy. The objective of this study was to access the removal efficiency of tetracycline (TC) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and development of TC and SMX resistance genes (sulI, sulII, sulIII, tetA, tetC, tetO and tetW) in the CW-MFCs. At the same time, electricity was produced during the co-metabolism of antibiotics and glucose. The results indicated that CW-MFCs could significantly reduce the concentration of TC and SMX in wastewater, and the removal efficiency were in the range of 92.3-94.6% and 95.0-97.5%, respectively. The removal efficiency of SMX was significantly higher than that of TC (p < 0.05). The satisfactory chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rates were also obtained. The highest power density was 0.0578 W/m2 under the external resistance of 1000 Ω. The relative abundances of target ARGs showed obvious increases compared to the initial levels in the soils (p < 0.05).