Intracity-scale study reveals spatiotemporal variation of urban airborne microbiota and dynamics of antibiotic resistance/virulence genes.

Authors

Yutong Wang, Yunming Qing, Shiqi Luo, Mengqi Tao, Yufen Yang, Zhenting Chen, Xian Zhang

Published in

Environmental research. Pages 126045. Oct 29, 2026. Epub Oct 29, 2026.

Abstract

Airborne microbiota are critical to urban air quality and public health, yet their spatiotemporal differentiation, community assembly, and profiles of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factor genes (VFGs) across urban functional zones remain poorly characterized. In this study, monthly 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was combined with seasonal metagenomic profiling of 12 composite samples and environmental data to investigate airborne microbiota at three sites representing commercial, industrial, and recreational zones in Changsha, China. Airborne communities showed similar spatial patterns among the investigated functional zones but strong seasonal variation, with Shannon diversity below 2.0 in July and above 6.0 in January. Proteobacteria dominated most samples, while key seasonal taxa shifted among Delftia, Cupriavidus, and Achromobacter. Neutral community modeling supported stochastic dominance (R² = 0.664, Nm = 1,200), with 92.6% of operational taxonomic units within the 95% confidence interval. However, βNTI and RCbray analyses indicated increased deterministic selection in autumn-winter, coinciding with high pressure and pollutant accumulation. Metagenomics identified 25 ARG, 14 VFG, and 6 mobile genetic element (MGE) categories, with season explaining 53.9% of VFG compositional differences. Exploratory structural equation modeling identified associations between MGE abundance and ARG/VFG abundances (β = 0.75 and 1.09, respectively; both P < 0.001). Binning and contig co-localization showed that ARG-VFG-MGE co-harboring fragments were potentially affiliated with opportunistic pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae, indicating potential biosafety concerns. These findings identify season as a key driver of urban airborne microbiota and genetic risk factors, providing a basis for atmospheric biosafety monitoring and assessment.

PMID:
42957028
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Oct 2026.

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