Occurrence and distribution of antibiotic resistance genes in the coastal area of the Bohai Bay, China

Considering the abuse of antibiotics worldwide, we investigated the abundance of three classes of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and the concentrations of corresponding antibiotics in water and sediments of Bohai Bay. The results showed that sulI and sulII were detected in all samples, and their abundance range was 10− 5-10− 2/16S gene copies. The abundance of tetM and ermB were relatively higher than the other genes of tet-ARGs and erm-ARGs. Sulfonamides were the most prevalent antibiotics, and the concentrations of antibiotic in sediments were higher than those in water. The correlation analysis revealed that antibiotics had pertinence with corresponding ARGs, indicating that antibiotics play an important role in the creation and transfer of ARGs. The results of regression analysis indicated that the propagation and maintenance of sulI and sulII were facilitated by class I integrons.