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Antibiotic-resistant pathogens are challenging treatment of infections worldwide. Urban sewage is potentially a major conduit for dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes into various environmental compartments. However, the diversity and abundance of such genes in wastewater are not well known.

Here, seasonal and geographical distributions of antibiotic resistance genes and their host bacterial communities from Chinese urban sewage were characterized, using metagenomic analyses and 16S rRNA gene-based Illumina sequencing, respectively.

In total, 381 different resistance genes were detected, and these genes were extensively shared across China, with no geographical clustering. Seasonal variation in abundance of resistance genes was observed, with average …