The Emergence of Antibiotics Resistance Genes, Bacteria, and Micropollutants in Grey Wastewater

Abstract

The reuse of household greywater is increasing globally. Wastewater and greywater treatment processes are not fully effective in removing all contaminants, such as emerging micropollutants, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes. The dynamics between emerging micropollutants and antibiotic resistance genes in greywater treatment systems are complex. Thus, this review aims to analyze the current knowledge on sources, spread, and the fate of emerging micropollutants, antibiotic-resistance genes, and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in microbial communities of greywater and downstream recipients. The fate of antimicrobial resistance and emerging micropollutants from greywater in the environment has not been determined. More studies are needed to identify the mechanism/s involved in the degradation of emerging micropollutants and the presence of transformation pathways in the microbial metagenome. In the review, we aim to describe the link between the persistence of emerging micropollutants and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. We showed that the effect of irrigation with treated wastewater was variable. In addition, we tried to summarize the impact of emerging micropollutants on bacteria and their fate in the soil microbiome, demonstrating that emerging micropollutants induce changes in the diversity of soil bacteria. The fate and transport of emerging micropollutants, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes can vary with soil properties. It is, therefore, necessary to better understand how widely antibiotic-resistance genes are disseminated.