Key words

Bacterial coalescence, Manure application, Erosion, Bacterial community, Antibiotic resistance, Sulfonamide, biodegradation

Abstract

An emerging function in the scientific literature, antibiotrophy is the bacterial capacity to metabolize antibiotics. Considered a bioremediation tool, it remains a health risk due to its association with antibiotic resistance. The first goal of this thesis was to study its dispersion within agrosystems contaminated with antibiotics during two coalescence events, i.e. manure spreading on the soil and its erosion towards the aquatic compartment. Experiments have shown the systematic invasion of the soil and sediment bacterial communities by the antibiotroph Microbacterium sp. C448 when sulfamethazine is present but not necessarily mineralized. The antibiotic would have a double function towards this strain: to decrease the competition by its biocidal action on the community and to constitute an exclusive nutritive source when necessary. This work also reports the isolation of two new antibiotrophic strains from natural river sediments that are phylogenetically and functionally close to those already known. This highlights the underestimated ubiquity of the antibiotrophy function and its probable recent widespread dispersal. Addressing the theme of bacterial dispersal in general, these experiments have highlighted bacterial transfers between different environmental compartments that can be influenced by antibiotic contamination, thus calling for the need to focus on the specific case of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

References

• Topp E., Chapman R., Devers-Lamrani M., Hartmann A., Marti R., Martin-Laurent F., Sabourin L., Scott A. and Sumarah M. 2013. Accelerated Biodegradation of Veterinary Antibiotics in Agricultural Soil following Long-Term Exposure, and Isolation of a Sulfamethazine-degrading Microbacterium sp.
• Heuer H. and Smalla K. 2007. Manure and sulfadiazine synergistically increased bacterial antibiotic resistance in soil over at least two months.

Publications

• BILLET L, PESCE S, MARTIN-LAURENT F, DEVERS-LAMRANI M, 2023. Experimental evidence for manure-borne bacteria invasion in soil during a coalescent event: influence of the antibiotic sulfamethazine. Microb. Ecol. 85, 1463–1472. doi: 10.1007/s00248-022-02020-w. hal-04157280
• BILLET L, PESCE S, ROUARD N, SPOR A, PARIS L, LEREMBOURE M, MOUNIER A, BESSE-HOGGAN P, MARTIN-LAURENT F, DEVERS-LAMRANI M, 2021. Antibiotrophy: Key Function for Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to Colonize Soils—Case of Sulfamethazine-Degrading Microbacterium sp. C448. Front. Microbiol., 12:643087. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.643087. hal-03313600
• PESCE S, KERGOAT L, PARIS L, BILLET L, BESSE-HOGGAN P, BONNINEAU C, 2021. Contrasting effects of environmental concentrations of sulfonamides on microbial heterotrophic activities in freshwater sediment. Front. Microbiol. 12:753647. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.753647. hal-03487091
• Martin-Laurent F., Topp E., Billet L., Batisson I., Malandain C., Besse-Hoggan P., Morin S., Artigas J., Bonnineau C., Kergoat L., Devers-Lamrani M., Pesce S., 2019. Environmental risk assessment of antibiotics in agroecosystems: ecotoxicological effects on aquatic microbial communities and dissemination of antimicrobial resistances and antibiotic biodegradation potential along the soil-water continuum. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 26, 18930-18937. doi : 10.1007/s11356-019-05122-0. hal-02195477

Funding

Project ANR ANTIBIOTOX 2018-2022 (ANR-17-CE34-0003)

Cite the thesis

Loren Billet. Potentiel de dispersion de l’antibiotrophie le long du continuum lisier-sol-sédiment dans les agrosystèmes contaminés par la sulfaméthazine. Microbiologie et Parasitologie. Université de Lyon, 2021. Français. ⟨NNT : 2021LYSE1280⟩. ⟨tel-03714128⟩

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