ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy
This article is part of the Research TopicMobilome Manipulation: Engineering Microbiomes to Counteract Antimicrobial ResistanceView all 4 articles
A Hidden Reservoir of Antibiotic Resistance Genes: Transferable Plasmids in Community Air and Wastewater
Provisionally accepted
Xinru Luo1
Jianrong Hou2Dan Xia2Yong Zhou2Na Huang2Junhua Liu2Xinqiang Zhang2Xia Tao2Anna Wang2
Pengzhe Qin2*
Peng He1,2,3*
Xinwei Wu1,2,3*- 1Sun Yat-Sen University School of Public Health, Guangzhou, China
- 2Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention(Guangzhou Health Supervision institute), Guangzhou, China
- 3Institute of Public Health, Guangzhou Medical University & Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, China
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Plasmid-mediated dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) poses a major public health threat. In contrast to the well-studied resistance plasmids within pathogens, those from non-pathogenic environmental reservoirs remain underexplored. Here, we characterized transferable multidrug-resistant plasmids captured from community air and wastewater via conjugation assays. Transconjugants obtained from these environmental samples were profiled phenotypically against 17 antibiotics and genetically via short-and long-read sequencing. Conjugative plasmid transfer was successfully captured from 33 (20.6%) of 160 environmental samples, yielding 78 transconjugant isolates and 40 plasmid types. The captured plasmids conferred resistance to 4–18 antibiotics, with near-universal resistance to ampicillin (98.7%) and retained susceptibility to polymyxin B (84.6%). Among 150 ARG instances identified across 19 classes, aac(3)-IId was the most prevalent. The dominant plasmids ps15D023_8 (wastewater) and peccDNA113 (airborne) were particularly notable; peccDNA113 carried 4 ARGs, 9 virulence factors (including fimH and AcrB), and confers resistance to at least 7 antibiotics. Critically, the carbapenemase gene blaNDM-5 was detected, and peccDNA113 shows homology to clinical plasmids, indicating a high risk of clinical–environmental exchange. These findings highlight community environments as crucial reservoirs for mobile, high-risk resistance plasmids and underscore the urgent need for expanded surveillance beyond clinical settings.
Keywords: Antibiotic resistance gene, Community, Drug Resistance, Particulate Matter, Transferable antibiotic resistance plasmids
Received: 04 Sep 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Luo, Hou, Xia, Zhou, Huang, Liu, Zhang, Tao, Wang, Qin, He and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Pengzhe Qin
Peng He
Xinwei Wu
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