A new paper from the GERM Lab is out --Correlation of Antibiotic Resistance Gene and Microbial Source Tracking Marker Removal through Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment
Check it out: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsestwater.3c00308
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a growing health threat, and wastewater treatment it's considered a hotspot for its occurence. We studied AMR in an activated sludge system as well as the effectiveness of microbial source tracking (MST) markers in monitoring AMR during wastewater treatment. Our findings showed that secondary treatment, like activated sludge, removed 84-100% of observed antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Interestingly, culturable indicators like E. coli and enterococci didn't correlate well with ARG removal, while somatic coliphages did. HF183/BacR287 emerged as a promising MST marker for tracking ARGs, highlighting the potential of MST in monitoring ARG fate during wastewater treatment.