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Bacteria play a more important role than nutrients in the accumulation of tetracycline resistance in manure-treated soil

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Abstract

Manure application to agricultural soils can increase the abundance of antibiotic-resistance genes and resistant bacterial populations in soil. The aim of this study was to compare the contribution of nutrients and microorganisms of manure in the accumulation of tetracycline resistance in manure-treated soil. Soil microcosms were incubated for 77 days in a bench-scale mesocosm experiment and for 2 years in a greenhouse experiment and treated with manure or sterilized manure. In the manured soil, both aerobic tetracycline-resistant bacteria (TRB) and tetracycline-resistance genes (TRGs) (tetG, tetB(P), tetO, and tetL) were detected. Nutrients and TRGs not carried by live bacteria contribute little to the accumulation of TRB and TRGs, while microorganisms from manure contributed considerably. However, in soil with a long history of manure fertilization, the survival or dissemination of TRB and TRGs were prevented. The native soil microbial communities were probably more competitive than microbial species added with manure for nutrients of colonizing soil niches. Some bacterial species showed a significant negative correlation with the relative abundance of the four TRGs and TRB; probably, these bacterial species might have played a role in inhibiting the survival of TRB or dissemination of TRGs. These findings provide some clues for revealing the mechanisms of how manure application influences the abundance of TRGs and TRB in soil.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the chief editor Paolo Nannipieri for their time and the constructive comments on improving our manuscript. Research in this work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21377137, 41501275, and 20607024), Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research Funds (1501077B) and CAS Strategic Priority Research Program Grant No. XDA05020800.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, Jiangsu, China

    Shuang Peng, Beibei Zhou, Yiming Wang, Xiangui Lin, Hongmei Wang & Cunpu Qiu

  2. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu, China

    Shuang Peng, Beibei Zhou, Yiming Wang & Xiangui Lin

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Beibei Zhou

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  1. Shuang Peng
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  2. Beibei Zhou
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Correspondence to Xiangui Lin.

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Peng, S., Zhou, B., Wang, Y. et al. Bacteria play a more important role than nutrients in the accumulation of tetracycline resistance in manure-treated soil. Biol Fertil Soils 52, 655–663 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-016-1105-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-016-1105-9

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