Metagenomic Assessment of Full-Scale Wastewater Treatment Plants Identifies Sentinel Antibiotic Resistance Gene Families for Monitoring Reclaimed Wastewater and Treated Sludge
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide The new European (EU) regulation on water reuse explicitly incorporates antimicrobial resistance (AMR) into routine monitoring and risk management, creating an urgent need to define target antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) for reclaimed irrigation water and agricultural sludge. However, existing global data largely focus on secondary effluents, providing little actionable evidence for reuse-oriented systems. Here, we present the first integrated framework combining targeted antibiotic residue analysis with shotgun metagenomics of the resistome, mobilome, and microbiome across full-scale reuse-oriented wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Southern Europe to identify sentinel antibiotic resistance families for monitoring. Reclaimed effluents exhibited lower AMR exposure levels than those typically reported for secondary effluents (
Fields of Study & Subjects
Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
Fecal contamination and water quality
Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 4632–4647
- Publication date
- 4 February 2026
- Language
- EN