Effect of Combined UV-Tea Polyphenol Disinfection on Antibiotic-Resistant Genes in Drinking Water

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance has become a major global challenge in recent years. Abusing and misusing antibiotics leads to the widespread spread of resistance genes in the water environment, which poses great challenges to drinking water safety and human health. Traditional disinfection methods are not effective against antibiotic resistance genes. While ultraviolet (UV) disinfection is widely used for its efficient bactericidal effect, its effect on tetracycline resistance genes is poor, and there is no disinfection persistence, as antibiotic resistance bacteria are easily restored by photoreactivation. As a green way of disinfection with continuous disinfection and without disinfection by-products, tea polyphenols have gradually attracted wide attention from researchers, because they can serve as an assistant disinfectant for ultraviolet disinfection. Studies have shown that tea polyphenols as an assistant disinfectant can effectively compensate for the disadvantages of ultraviolet disinfection. In this study, the effects of a UV-tea polyphenols combined disinfection process on resistance genes were analyzed by metagenomics sequencing, and the combined process showed better removal of tetracycline and β-lactam resistance genes. It is suitable for raw water containing higher concentrations of specific resistance genes. This combined disinfection process controls the spread of resistance genes mainly through the direct disruption of resistance genes and the effective inhibition and killing of resistant bacteria. This is important for the optimization of resistance genes removal capability in water treatment.