Variations in antibiotic resistance genes and removal mechanisms induced by C/N ratio of substrate during composting

For a comprehensive insight into the potential mechanism of the removal of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) removal induced by initial substrates during composting, we tracked the dynamics of physicochemical properties, bacterial community composition, fungal community composition, the relative abundance of ARGs and mobile genetic genes (MGEs) during reed straw and cow manure composting with different carbon to nitrogen ratio. The results showed that the successive bacterial communities were mainly characterized by the dynamic balance between Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, while the fungal communities were composed of Ascomycota. During composting, the interactions between bacteria and fungi were mainly negative. After composting, the removal efficiency of ARGs in compost treatment with C/N ≈ 26 (LL) was higher than that in compost treatment with C/N ≈ 35 (HL), while MGEs were completely degraded in HL and enriched by 2.3% in LL. The large reduction in the relative abundance of ARGs was possibly due to a decrease in the potential host bacterial genera, such as Advenella, Tepidimicrobium, Proteiniphilum, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Flavobacteria and Arcbacter. Partial least-squares path modeling (PLS-PM) revealed that the succession of bacterial communities played a more important role than MGEs in ARGs removal, while indirect factors of the fungal communities altered the profile of ARGs by affecting the bacterial communities. Both direct and indirect factors were affected by composting treatments. This study provides insights into the role of fungal communities in affecting ARGs and highlights the role of different composting treatments with different carbon to nitrogen ration on the underlying mechanism of ARGs removal.