The impact of green spaces, urban settings, seasonal changes, and pollutants on dissemination of antimicrobial genes in air

Duan, Yuping, Cole, Jennifer, Mkrtchyan, Hermine and Xu, Zhen (2025) The impact of green spaces, urban settings, seasonal changes, and pollutants on dissemination of antimicrobial genes in air. Scientific reports, 15. pp. 1-11.

[thumbnail of PDF/A]
Preview
PDF (PDF/A)
The impact of green spaces_ MkrtchyanHV_accessible.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in the air poses a significant public healthchallenge. Little is known about the role of vegetation in reducing the dissemination of aerosolisedARGs. DNA extracts obtained directly from the air sample were used to detect nine antimicrobial-resistant genes using qPCR and 16S rRNA sequencing. The average relative abundance of nineaerosolised ARGs (blaTEM, mecA, sul3, ermB, ermC, aac(6’)-Ib, tetM, tetW, and sul1) detected in urbanspaces with high vegetation coverage (0.0083 (ARGs/16S rRNA), was slightly lower than in those withlow or no vegetation (0.0135 (ARGs/16S rRNA)) (P > 0.05). The relative abundance of aerosolised ARGsaround urban heat islands (UHI) significantly decreased (t = 2.06, P = 0.04) after central heating wasswitched off. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the relative abundance of the mecAgene in urban air. UHIs may be a reservoir of ARGs in urban air, hence, planting non-allergenic trees andbushes or hedgerows could be an effective way to decrease the dissemination of aerosolised ARGs. Wealso detected ARG reduction in high-vegetation-covered areas. Further study is required to explore thevegetation-mediated reduction of ARGs in the air.

Item Type: Article
Identifier: 10.1038/s41598-025-95477-x
Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance genes, Aerosolised, Distribution, Dissemination, Influencing factors, Air
Subjects: Natural sciences > Cell and molecular biology
Depositing User: Hermine Mkrtchyan
Date Deposited: 07 Jul 2025 12:58
Last Modified: 07 Jul 2025 13:00
URI: https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/13834

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Menu