Anthropogenic Activities and Microbial Populations: War, Peace or Adaptation? †
Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the International Conference EcoBalt 2023 “Chemicals & Environment”, Tallinn, Estonia, 9–11 October 2023.
Proceedings 2023, 92(1), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023092075
Published: 5 December 2023
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of International Conference EcoBalt 2023 "Chemicals & Environment")
Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food sectors in Central, North, and Eastern Europe. Freshwater farming is changing the biodiversity of fishing ponds to fulfill industrial needs, and these changes can impact adjusting water bodies. Precautions should be taken to protect ecosystems and ensure that they are sustainable. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the influence of intensive fish farming on the condition of fishery ponds themselves and the surrounding water ecosystems, as well as to evaluate the possibility of transferring pollutants and antibiotic resistance genes to both environment and human hosts. Sediment samples and fish gut microbiome samples were collected during September 2019 and the Summer of 2020 in three locations in Lithuania: fishery ponds, Simnas Lake upstream from the fishery ponds, and Dusia Lake, which is downstream from the fishery ponds. Heavy metals and antibiotic residues were measured in the samples. Genomic DNA was isolated from the samples using the ZymoBIOMICSTM DNA Miniprep Kit according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. The composition of the bacterial community was determined using next-generation sequencing (NGS) by scanning the amplicons of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. The V3–V4 16S rRNA regions were chosen for sequencing because they are capable of detecting both bacterial and archaea taxons with a high resolution [1,2]. NGS was performed by Novogene Bioinformatics Technology Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China) on an Illumina paired-end platform to generate 250 base pairs (bps) length paired-end raw reads. None of the tested sediment samples showed significantly elevated heavy metal concentrations or substantial veterinary antibiotic pollution. From the antibiotic resistance genes tested, the presence of aminoglycoside and b-lactam resistance determinants, as well as the presence of integrons, could be of concern for the possibility of being transferred to humans. The microbiome beta-diversity analysis results clearly indicated the differences between the microbiota composition of all pond sediments and the entrance point, treated as a clean area.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, E.L. and J.A.; methodology, E.L. and J.A.; resources, E.L. and J.A.; data curation, E.L. and J.A.; writing—original draft preparation, E.L.; writing—review and editing, E.L.; visualization, E.L. and J.A.; supervision, E.L.; project administration, E.L.; funding acquisition, E.L. and J.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by a Grant (No. S-SIT-20-6) from the Research Council of Lithuania.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to the fact that the fish used in this study were catched according to the “Rules for AmateurFishing in Inland Waters”, approved by the Ministry of Environment D1-435, 23 July 2019, Republic of Lithuania.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found at: NCBI Bioproject PRJNA715198.
Acknowledgments
Authors would like to thank Modestas Ružauskas, Vaidotas Valskys, Vilmantas Gėgžna, and Justinas Kavoliūnas for the sample collection and data analysis, and Radvilė Drevinskaitė, Karina Kasperovičiūtė, Karolina Sabaitė, and Ieva Ščerba for excellent technical assistance.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
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MDPI and ACS Style
Armalytė, J.; Lastauskienė, E. Anthropogenic Activities and Microbial Populations: War, Peace or Adaptation? Proceedings 2023, 92, 75. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023092075
AMA Style
Armalytė J, Lastauskienė E. Anthropogenic Activities and Microbial Populations: War, Peace or Adaptation? Proceedings. 2023; 92(1):75. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023092075
Chicago/Turabian StyleArmalytė, Julija, and Eglė Lastauskienė. 2023. "Anthropogenic Activities and Microbial Populations: War, Peace or Adaptation?" Proceedings 92, no. 1: 75. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2023092075
