Antimicrobial Resistance in Environmental Waters Edited by Karina Yew-Hoong Gin and Charmaine Ng Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Water www.mdpi.com/journal/water Antimicrobial Resistance in Environmental Waters Antimicrobial Resistance in Environmental Waters Special Issue Editors Karina Yew-Hoong Gin Charmaine Ng MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade Special Issue Editors Karina Yew-Hoong Gin Charmaine Ng National University of Singapore National University of Singapore Singapore Singapore Editorial Office MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Water (ISSN 2073-4441) from 2017 to 2019 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/si/water/ Antimicrobial-Resistance-Environmental-Waters). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Article Number, Page Range. ISBN 978-3-03897-608-0 (Pbk) ISBN 978-3-03897-609-7 (PDF) Cover image courtesy of Charmaine Ng. c 2019 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. Contents About the Special Issue Editors ..................................... vii Preface to ”Antimicrobial Resistance in Environmental Waters” .................. ix Charmaine Ng and Karina Yew-Hoong Gin Monitoring Antimicrobial Resistance Dissemination in Aquatic Systems Reprinted from: Water 2019, 11, 71, doi:10.3390/w11010071 ...................... 1 Kevin Lambirth, Matthew Tsilimigras, Anju Lulla, James Johnson, Abrar Al-Shaer, Orion Wynblatt, Shannon Sypolt, Cory Brouwer, Sandra Clinton, Olya Keen, Molly Redmond, Anthony Fodor and Cynthia Gibas Microbial Community Composition and Antibiotic Resistance Genes within a North Carolina Urban Water System Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 1539, doi:10.3390/w10111539 ..................... 8 Hsin-Chi Tsai, Ming-Yuan Chou, Yi-Jia Shih, Tung-Yi Huang, Pei-Yu Yang, Yi-Chou Chiu, Jung-Sheng Chen and Bing-Mu Hsu Distribution and Genotyping of Aquatic Acinetobacter baumannii Strains Isolated from the Puzi River and Its Tributaries Near Areas of Livestock Farming Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 1374, doi:10.3390/w10101374 ..................... 29 Asli Aslan, Zachariah Cole, Anunay Bhattacharya and Oghenekpaobor Oyibo Presence of Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluents Utilized as Water Reuse for Irrigation Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 805, doi:10.3390/w10060805 ..................... 41 Pierangeli G. Vital, Enrico S. Zara, Cielo Emar M. Paraoan, Ma. Angela Z. Dimasupil, Joseth Jermaine M. Abello, I nigo˜ Teodoro G. Santos and Windell L. Rivera Antibiotic Resistance and Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase Production of Escherichia coli Isolated from Irrigation Waters in Selected Urban Farms in Metro Manila, Philippines Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 548, doi:10.3390/w10050548 ..................... 52 Muhammad Raihan Jumat, Muhammad Fauzi Haroon, Nada Al-Jassim, Hong Cheng and Pei-Ying Hong An Increase of Abundance and Transcriptional Activity for Acinetobacter junii Post Wastewater Treatment Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 436, doi:10.3390/w10040436 ..................... 63 Junying Lu, Zhe Tian, Jianwei Yu, Min Yang and Yu Zhang Distribution and Abundance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Sand Settling Reservoirs and Drinking Water Treatment Plants across the Yellow River, China Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 246, doi:10.3390/w10030246 ..................... 87 Zheng Xu, Yue Jiang, Shu Harn Te, Yiliang He and Karina Yew-Hoong Gin The Effects of Antibiotics on Microbial Community Composition in an Estuary Reservoir during Spring and Summer Seasons Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 154, doi:10.3390/w10020154 ..................... 99 Yue Jiang, Cong Xu, Xiaoyu Wu, Yihan Chen, Wei Han, Karina Yew-Hoong Gin and Yiliang He Occurrence, Seasonal Variation and Risk Assessment of Antibiotics in Qingcaosha Reservoir Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 115, doi:10.3390/w10020115 .....................118 v Yihan Chen, Hongjie Chen, Li Zhang, Yue Jiang, Karina Yew-Hoong Gin and Yiliang He Occurrence, Distribution, and Risk Assessment of Antibiotics in a Subtropical River-Reservoir System Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 104, doi:10.3390/w10020104 .....................133 Jennipher Quach-Cu, Bellanira Herrera-Lynch, Christine Marciniak, Scott Adams, April Simmerman and Ryan A. Reinke The Effect of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Wastewater Treatment Processes on Antibiotic Resistance Gene (ARG) Concentrations in Solid and Dissolved Wastewater Fractions Reprinted from: Water 2018, 10, 37, doi:10.3390/w10010037 ......................149 Joyce Seow Fong Chin, Sheetal Sinha, Anjaiah Nalaparaju, Joey Kuok Hoong Yam, Zhiqiang Qin, Luyan Ma, Zhao-Xun Liang, Lanyuan Lu, Surajit Bhattacharjya and Liang Yang Pseudomonas aeruginosa Psl Exopolysaccharide Interacts with the Antimicrobial Peptide LG21 Reprinted from: Water 2017, 9, 681, doi:10.3390/w9090681 .......................167 vi About the Special Issue Editors Karina Yew-Hoong Gin is an Associate Professor with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore. She received her Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Melbourne in 1988 and her M.Eng Degree from the National University of Singapore in 1991. She obtained her Doctor of Science (ScD) Degree jointly from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1996. Her research specialization is in the area of water quality, fate and transport of emerging contaminants, and ecosystem processes. Charmaine Ng is a Research Fellow with the Department of Surgery, National University of Singapore. She graduated with a PhD in microbiology at the University of New South Wales, Australia in 2011. Her research interests include marine and freshwater microbial ecology, antimicrobial resistance, and the study of the human microbiome in relation to different disease states. vii Preface to ”Antimicrobial Resistance in Environmental Waters” In recent years, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance has drawn heightened global concern because of its severe ramifications on the treatment of microbial infections. In particular, the issue of antibiotic resistance arises due to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in both developed and developing countries. Bacteria develop antibiotic resistance in the presence of residual levels of antibiotics, and these antibiotic-resistant bacteria are in turn able to spread their resistance to other bacteria through mechanisms such as horizontal gene transfer, mediated by mobile genetic elements (e.g., plasmids, integrons) or co-selecting agents such as biocides and toxic metals. There is a worrying trend that pathogens are developing antibiotic resistance to a degree where last-resort antibiotics are no longer effective. This, in turn, has severe implications for public health and healthcare costs. In an effort to better understand the rising levels of antimicrobial resistance, surveillance studies have been undertaken across countries in a common effort to explore the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in both clinical and natural environments. Implementing such initiatives by assessing the types of antibiotics used, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) present, and associated antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in microbiomes enables a better understanding of the impact of antibiotics in the medicine, agriculture, and aquaculture industries. Aquatic environments harbor diverse freshwater bacterial communities which may be subjected to anthropogenic pressures, while domestic wastewaters receive direct loads of antibiotics and pathogenic bacteria from human excretion. The nature of these environments allows them to function as hotspots for resistance through the selection of ARB and the circulation of ARGs through the stimulation of horizontal gene transfer between members of the microbiome. The aims of this Special Issue are to present current trends in antimicrobial/antibiotic resistance in diverse environmental waters, ranging from the detection and occurrence of antimicrobial factors (e.g., antimicrobials, antibiotics, ARB, ARGs) to their fate and transformations in different environments such as surface waters, groundwaters, biofilms, and water and wastewater treatment processes. This knowledge is needed to assist in the management and control of antimicrobial/antibiotic resistance and, ultimately, the protection of public health. Karina Yew-Hoong Gin, Charmaine Ng Special Issue Editors ix water Editorial Monitoring Antimicrobial Resistance Dissemination in Aquatic Systems Charmaine Ng 1 and Karina Yew-Hoong Gin 2,3,* 1 Department of Surgery, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore; [email protected] 2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 138602, Singapore 3 NUS Environmental Research Institute (NERI), Singapore 138602, Singapore * Correspondence: