Contig-Resolved Genetic Context of Antimicrobial Resistome in Sediments of Two Contrasting Wastewater-Impacted Rivers

Assembly- and read-mapping metagenomics of sediment from two wastewater-impacted Indian rivers identified 2,402 ARG-carrying contigs with 264 ARG subtypes, including Rank IV determinants at 77.82% abundance.

• Why it matters: Gene counts alone miss how resistance determinants are packaged, mobilized, and linked to environmental hosts, limiting surveillance priorities in wastewater-impacted settings.
• What they did: Using 40.78 Gb of clean metagenomic data per river, ARG-carrying contigs were annotated for mobile genetic elements, biocide/metal resistance genes, virulence factor genes, nitrogen-cycling genes, and putative host taxonomy.
• The result: MGEs appeared on 3.12% (75/2,402) of ACCs, with plasmid-like contigs and proximal ARG–MGE associations; only 12 ACCs carried nitrogen-cycling annotations, and 217 ACCs were resolved to species level with no matches to curated human pathogenic bacteria.

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