Aeromonas isolation reveals this genus' contribution to antimicrobial resistance fluxes across the wastewater - treated water - river interface

Aim: Aeromonas spp. are common members of water and wastewater microbiomes but some are listed as opportunistic pathogens and are often reported to carry antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. We aimed to assess the performance of isolation media for capturing their distribution and their role in AMR dissemination into aquatic environments.

Methods and results: We investigated the abundance, diversity, and AMR profile of Aeromonas isolates from wastewater and receiving water bodies at five municipal wastewater treatment plants in Denmark using three isolation media. This was then compared with the diversity estimated from community-wide 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and resistance patterns inferred from high-throughput qPCR of resistance genes. Isolates from ampicillin sheep blood agar (ASBA) were the most phylogenetically diverse, but the overall Aeromonas recovery on the three media was similarly good and matched the dominant amplicon sequence variants. While the dominant phylotypes were ubiquitous, some types were only detected in treated wastewater and the receiving rivers. The resistance prevalence was moderate, and mostly to beta-lactams and tetracyclines. Isolates resistant to piperacilin-tazobactam, cefepime, and tetracycline downstream of the plants were linked to wastewater origin.

Conclusion: Overall, our work demonstrates Aeromonas and Aeromonas-mediated AMR fluxes at the wastewater/environment interfaces and provides methodological bases for monitoring aeromonads in wastewater and surface waters.