Antibiotic resistance in WWTP

Urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been considered as hotspots for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and they are recognized as key environments where antibiotic resistance evolves.

WWTPs are one of the main point sources of antibiotic resistance to the environment and the resistance has found to be enriched by the treatment processes. We study antibiotic resistance in WWTPs by analysing antibiotic resistance genes my various molecular methods such as array-qPCR, epicPCR, Inverse-PCR and metagenomics.

We were partners of European-wide project on antibiotic resistance genes in WWTPs in different countries, StARE. The project is funded by Water JPI and coordinated by Célia Manaia from Porto, Portugal.