A maverick: Environmentally relevant concentrations of nonylphenol attenuate the plasmid-mediated conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes

Abstract

Given that many organic pollutants have been reported to facilitate the plasmid-mediated conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), it was naturally deduced that nonylphenol (NP) can also have this kind of effect. Whereas, this study demonstrates an entirely different result that environmentally relevant concentrations of NP attenuate plasmid-mediated ARGs conjugative transfer (maximum inhibition rate 64 %), further study show that NP exposure had no significant effect on bacterial growth, cell vitality, oxidative stress response, and expression of conjugation-relevant genes, which were reported to closely relate to the conjugative transfer in numerous studies. Conclusively, it was found that the dispersant function of NP impeded the occurrence of cell mating, thus was responsible for the decline of conjugative transfer. This study shows a new perspective on understanding the effect of organic pollutants like NP on the ARGs horizontal dissemination in environment.