CeBiTec Colloquium: 2008/09/29 Dr. Tatiana Lobova, Krasnoyarsk Scientific Centre of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

2008/10/01, 17:15

CeBiTec Laboratory Building, Room G2-104

Multiple resistance to antibiotics of heterotrophic bacteria from Seberian lakes as a marker of anthropogenic impact on the ecosystems

Abstract:

The dissemination of antibiotic resistance within aquatic bacteria is a matter of serious public health and ecological concern. Untreated wastewater, effluents from hospitals and sewage from other sources containing pathogenic bacteria can all act as a source of resistance genes for autochthonous bacteria in aquatic ecosystems. The antibiotic resistance profile of heterotrophic bacterial isolates recovered from two lakes in Southern Siberia (Russia) was determined in order to examine the effect of anthropogenic disturbance on aquatic ecosystems. We compared isolates recovered from different parts of each lake, as these sites may also be under different levels of disturbance. The highest level of multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) was observed for bacteria isolated from the resort/shore-line parts of the lakes. We concluded that MAR may be a useful marker to monitor the levels of allochthonous bacteria in the lakes. Plasmid profiles were investigated for each bacterial isolate showing multiple antibiotic resistance. The data suggest that the dissemination of plasmids plays a critical role in the spread of antibiotic resistance through the aquatic ecosystems under investigation.