Combating antibiotic resistance in the human-impacted environment with carbon-based materials: Applications and challenges

AbstractAntibiotic resistance, along with its dynamics in different environments, has attracted increasing attention because of the potential for resistance gene transfer into human pathogens. Therefore, several researchers have focused on combating the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in diverse environments, using various carbon-based amendments to resolve issues regarding emerging contaminants. However, information on systematic knowledge regarding carbon-based material performance and mechanisms for alleviating ARGs remains lacking. To this end, we summarize carbon-based materials that are used as additives, amendments, adsorbents, and other functional materials in compost, soil, and water environments. The underlying mechanisms of alleviating ARG pollution using carbon-based materials are mainly related to 1) environmental factor improvement, 2) microbial community structure alteration, 3) chemical contaminant-caused co-selective pressure reduction, 4) mobile genetic element (mediating horizontal gene transfer processes) reduction, and 5) direct adsorption and/or damage to extracellular DNA. This review aimed to enrich our understanding of the functional roles of carbon-based materials and provide a basis for management strategy development to mitigate ARG pollution.Keywords: Antibiotic resistance genescarbon-based materialone healthenvironmental ecosystemimpedance process and mechanismHandling Editors: Eakalak Khan and Lena Q. Ma Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41977137), Shennong Young Talents of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China (SNYCQN006-2022), International Atomic Energy Agency Coordinated Research Project (D15022), Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (2022ZB460), Chinese Academy of Sciences President's International Fellowship Initiative (2020DC005, 2024DC0009), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M733593), and the Center for Health Impacts of Agriculture (CHIA) of Michigan State University. Fang Wang was partly supported by the fellowship of Alexander von Humboldt for experienced researchers.