Abstract
High concentration of heavy metals in the environment triggers metal resistance mechanisms and act as a driving force in the proliferation of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms thereby raising ecological and health concerns. Hypersaline soils are naturally augmented with heavy metals. In current study, nine halophilic bacteria i.e. Halomonas elongata MB590, H. elongata MB591, H. elongata MB593, H. elongata MB594, H. elongata MB595, Halobacillus karajiensis MB588, Alkalibacillus almallahensis MB589, Aquisalibacillus elongatus MB592, and H. elongata MB596 were investigated for multiple heavy metal and antibiotic resistance patterns. These observations were further subjected to correlation as well as Principle Component Analysis (PCA) to identify the association between resistance of bacterial strains with respect to antibiotics and metals. All the isolates showed resistance to various antibiotics with Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index above 0.2 for each strain. MAR and Multiple Heavy Metal Resistance (MHMR) indices revealed H. elongata MB593 as the most resistant strain to most of the heavy metals and antibiotics. Alkalibacillus almallahensis MB589 and A. elongatus MB592 were sensitive to all heavy metals and only isolate A. elongatus MB592 was found sensitive to most of the antibiotics. This MAR and MHMR in halophilic bacteria might be the consequence of a common mechanism they shared for antibiotic and heavy metal resistance. Correlation analysis between heavy metal and antibiotic resistance spectra of halophilic bacteria indicated strong association among heavy metal and antibiotic tolerance. This study provided a strong evidence for co-existence of heavy metal and antibiotic resistance in halophilic bacteria and gives insight for future study on the molecular basis of resistomes of these bacteria.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amoozegar M, Ghazanfari N, Didari M (2012) Lead and cadmium bioremoval by Halomonas sp., an exopolysaccharide-producing halophilic bacterium. Prog Biol Sci 2(1):1–11. https://doi.org/10.22059/pbs.2012.24820
Chenia HY, Jacobs A (2017) Antimicrobial resistance, heavy metal resistance and integron content in bacteria isolated from a south African tilapia aquaculture system. Dis Aquat Org 126(3):199–209. https://doi.org/10.3354/dao03173
di Cesare A, Eckert E, Corno G (2016) Co-selection of antibiotic and heavy metal resistance in freshwater bacteria. J Limnol 75:59–66. https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2016.1198
El-Sayed MH (2016) Multiple heavy metal and antibiotic resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii strain HAF–13 isolated from industrial effluents. Am J Microbiol Res 4(1):26–36. https://doi.org/10.12691/ajmr-4-1-3
Fariq A, Yasmin A (2020) Production, characterization and bioactivities of biosurfactants from newly isolated strictly halophilic bacteria. Process Biochem 98:1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procbio.2020.07.011
Hammer Ø, Harper DA, Ryan PD (2001) PAST: paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontol Electron 4(1):9
Hassen A, Saidi N, Cherif M, Boudabous A (1998) Resistance of environmental bacteria to heavy metals. Bioresour Technol 64(1):7–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0960-8524(97)00161-2
Kawane RS (2012) Studies on antibiotics and heavy metal resistance profiling of Escherichia coli from drinking water and clinical specimens. Biosci Discov 3(3):292–295
Knapp CW, McCluskey SM, Singh BK, Campbell CD, Hudson G, Graham DW (2011) Antibiotic resistance gene abundances correlate with metal and geochemical conditions in archived Scottish soils. PLoS One 6(11):e27300. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0027300
Li LG, Xia Y, Zhang T (2017) Co-occurrence of antibiotic and metal resistance genes revealed in complete genome collection. ISME J 11(3):651–662
Martinez JL (2009) Environmental pollution by antibiotics and by antibiotic resistance determinants. Environ Pollut 157(11):2893–2902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2009.05.051
Nath S, Paul P, Roy R, Bhattacharjee S, Deb B (2019) Isolation and identification of metal-tolerant and antibiotic-resistant bacteria from soil samples of Cachar district of Assam, India. SN Appl Sci 1(7):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0762-3
Nguyen CC, Hugie CN, Kile ML, Navab-Daneshmand T (2019) Association between heavy metals and antibiotic-resistant human pathogens in environmental reservoirs: a review. Front Environ Sci Eng 13(3):1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-019-1129-0
Osman O, Tanguichi H, Ikeda K, Park P, Tanabe-Hosoi S, Nagata S (2010) Copper-resistant halophilic bacterium isolated from the polluted Maruit Lake, Egypt. J Appl Microbiol 108(4):1459–1470. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2672.2009.04574.x
Poole K (2017) At the nexus of antibiotics and metals: the impact of cu and Zn on antibiotic activity and resistance. Trends Microbiol 25(10):820–832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2017.04.010
Roohi A, Ahmed I, Khalid N, Iqbal M, Jamil M (2014) Isolation and phylogenetic identification of halotolerant/halophilic bacteria from the salt mines of Karak, Pakistan. Int J Agric Biol 16:564–570
Seiler C, Berendonk TU (2012) Heavy metal driven co-selection of antibiotic resistance in soil and water bodies impacted by agriculture and aquaculture. Front Microbiol 14(3):399. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00399
Shinde VD, Thombre RS (2016) Antibiotic resistance profiling of marine halophilic bacteria and haloarchaea. J App Pharm Sci 6(10):132–137. https://doi.org/10.7324/JAPS.2016.601018
Sinegani AAS, Younessi N (2017) Antibiotic resistance of bacteria isolated from heavy metal-polluted soils with different land uses. J Glob Antimicrob Re 10:247–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgar.2017.05.012
Voica DM, Bartha L, Banciu HL, Oren A (2016) Heavy metal resistance in halophilic bacteria and archaea. FEMS Microbiol Lett 363(14). https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnw146
Wuana RA, Okieimen FE (2011) Heavy metals in contaminated soils: a review of sources, chemistry, risks and best available strategies for remediation. ISRN Ecol 2011:402647. https://doi.org/10.5402/2011/402647
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yasmin, A., Fariq, A. & Jamil, M. A statistical approach to determine co-existence of heavy metal and antibiotic resistance in environmental isolates of Khewra salt range, Pakistan. Biologia 76, 3801–3809 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00888-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00888-6