Analysis of Antibiotic and Heavy Metal Resistant Microbiome from Hospital Wastewater Effluent in Aizawl, Mizoram

Effluents from hospital wastewater are recognized as important sources of antibiotic and heavy metal resistant bacteria and might play a role in the removal and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance in the environment. The release of resistant bacteria to the receiving environment can pose public health impact. The microbiome analysis was carrying out from wastewater soils of hospitals in Aizawl city, Mizoram, India. According to 16S rRNA amplification and sequencing, the isolated bacteria from the wastewater soils were found to be mainly of Morganella morganii and Bacillus cereus. These isolated bacteria were found to be highly resistant to a wide range of antibiotics and heavy metals. The antibiotic resistance profiles of these isolated bacteria were analyzed. The strains HC and HR possessed a high level of resistance to different antibiotics, and both grew remarkably well even at 200 mg/ml of ampicillin, 100 g/ml of kanamycin, chloramphenicol and ciprofloxacin even at a concentration of 50 mg/ml could not inhibit the growth of the HC strains. The level of resistance was also remarkably high when compared to earlier reports of antibiotic resistance observed in the corresponding bacteria. Our results suggested that the high level of resistance is probably conferred by the continued exposure to antibiotics from hospital effluent leading to a selected population of highly antibiotics resistant bacteria. The heavy metal resistance profile of the isolated species was studied. The HC and the HR strains show high resistance to lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) compared to the control (DH5