Cold soil slows fungi that break down leftover antibiotics
Yin J, Zhang Y, Luo W, Ma Y, Sun Y
Soil Health
If you spread manure or compost on your beds, veterinary antibiotics from the animals can end up in that soil, and a cold spell leaves the fungi that clean them out working at half speed.
Antibiotics given to farm animals end up in manure and then in the soil, where they can encourage bacteria to become drug-resistant. Soil fungi help break these drugs down, and they do it best under normal seasonal temperatures. In cold soil, the fungi that transform the drugs become scarcer, so the antibiotics and resistance genes stick around longer.
Key Findings
Antibiotic half-life was 18-22 days at natural seasonal temperatures but 44-58 days at a constant 4 °C.
Soil with a history of organic fertilizer cleared antibiotics more slowly (half-life 22-58 days) than unfertilized soil (18-44 days).
Fungal pathways for oxidative and intracellular transformation of antibiotics were less abundant in cold soil, while the capture-and-transport core showed no significant temperature difference; resistance genes declined least at 4 °C.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Soil fungi help break down veterinary antibiotics that build up in farm soils, but cold slows them down. Over 18 months, antibiotics cleared roughly two to three times faster under natural seasonal temperatures than at a constant 4 °C, and the resistance genes they select for lingered longest in the cold.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Temperature shapes a modular division of labor among soil fungi to facilitate antibiotic dissipation.
The antibiotics used in veterinary medicine accumulate in agricultural soils, where their persistence selects for antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs). Soil fungi possess diverse metabolic enzyme sys...
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