Antibio-tools: Tools to characterize and monitor antibiotics and antibioresistance in aquatic ecosystems

Coordinator: Chloé Bonnineau (INRAE – UR RiverLy, EMA)

Partner PIs:

• Chloé Bonnineau & Stéphane Pesce (EMA, UR RiverLy – INRAE)
• Christophe Dagot (UMR Inserm 1092 – Université de Limoges)
• Leslie Mondamert & Jérôme Labanowski (IC2MP – Université de Poitiers)
• Agnès Bouchez & Emilie Lyautey (CARRTEL – INRAE / USMB)
• Fabrice Martin-Laurent (Agroecologie – INRAE)

The ANTIBIO-TOOLS project gathers 5 complementary research teams with the aim of

• investigating the repartition of antibiotics and antibioresistance in different aquatic compartments;
• comparing various methods of antibioresistance detection;
• exploring the role of microbial community in antibiotic biodegradation.

To do so, a 2-year campaign has been conducted on 2 sites belonging to regional observatories and presenting contrasting levels to pharmaceuticals: the Arve river belonging to Sipibel and the Geneva lake belonging to the Observatory of Alpins Lakes.

On each sampling campaign, the following parameters have been determined:

• antibiotics levels in water, sediments and periphyton;
• antibioresistance in periphyton and sediments using various techniques: detection of resistance genes, integrons quantification, detection of tolerance acquisition via a PICT approach;
• antibiotics biodegradation potential of microbial community from sediments (by radiorespirometric measurement);
• diversity of bacteria and diatoms in periphyton and sediments;
• physico-chemical parameters.

Thus, the project ANTIBIO-TOOLS should provide helpful information on the dynamic of antibioresistance in the aquatic environment: hotspots, temporal variability, influence of biotic and abiotic factors (e.g. microbial community composition, antibiotics contamination). By comparing the response of various tools monitoring antibioresistance, this project will provide guidelines for their use. Finally highlighting a potential microbial degradation of antibiotics would be promising for monitoring natural attenuation and potential recovery of the environment.

Presentation the 1^st results of the project available here