Validation of a Synthetic Wastewater Matrix as a Proxy for Municipal Wastewater for In Vitro Studies of E. coli.
6 affiliations
- 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- 2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- 3Center for Forced Displacement, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- 4Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
- 5Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- 6Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to global health and resistant bacterial populations have been observed to develop and spread in and around wastewater. However, in vitro studies on AMR development are typically conducted in ideal rich media conditions, which can differ in composition and nutrient density from wastewater. In this study, we compare the growth and AMR development of E. coli in a synthetic wastewater recipe to autoclaved wastewater samples from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). We found that synthetic wastewater and real wastewater samples both supported less bacterial growth compared to LB broth and had similar susceptibility profiles to antibiotic pressure from Doxycycline, Ciprofloxacin and Streptomycin. More importantly, unlike in LB broth, AMR development over time during continuous passaging under subinhibitory antibiotic pressure in pH-adjusted synthetic wastewater was similar in fold change to real wastewater samples. Thus, we suggest that synthetic wastewater is a more accurate predictor of both E. coli growth and antibiotic resistance development in wastewater systems than standard nutrient broths such as LB. The validation of synthetic wastewater as a better proxy for real wastewater will allow for further recapitulation of the wastewater environment in future in vitro studies of AMR in these conditions.
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BibTeX
@article{sutradhar2026validation,
title = {{Validation of a Synthetic Wastewater Matrix as a Proxy for Municipal Wastewater for In Vitro Studies of E. coli.}},
author = {Indorica Sutradhar and Neila Gross and Carly Ching and Yanina Nahum and Darash Desai and Devin A Bowes and Muhammad H Zaman},
journal = {Environmental microbiology reports},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1111/1758-2229.70450},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42919668},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Validation of a Synthetic Wastewater Matrix as a Proxy for Municipal Wastewater for In Vitro Studies of E. coli.
AU - Indorica Sutradhar
AU - Neila Gross
AU - Carly Ching
AU - Yanina Nahum
AU - Darash Desai
AU - Devin A Bowes
AU - Muhammad H Zaman
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Environmental microbiology reports
DO - 10.1111/1758-2229.70450
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42919668
AB - Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to global health and resistant bacterial populations have been observed to develop and spread in and around wastewater. However, in vitro studies on AMR development are typically conducted in ideal rich media conditions, which can differ in composition and nutrient density from wastewater. In this study, we compare the growth and AMR development of E. coli in a synthetic wastewater recipe to autoclaved wastewater samples from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). We found that synthetic wastewater and real wastewater samples both supported less bacterial growth compared to LB broth and had similar susceptibility profiles to antibiotic pressure from Doxycycline, Ciprofloxacin and Streptomycin. More importantly, unlike in LB broth, AMR development over time during continuous passaging under subinhibitory antibiotic pressure in pH-adjusted synthetic wastewater was similar in fold change to real wastewater samples. Thus, we suggest that synthetic wastewater is a more accurate predictor of both E. coli growth and antibiotic resistance development in wastewater systems than standard nutrient broths such as LB. The validation of synthetic wastewater as a better proxy for real wastewater will allow for further recapitulation of the wastewater environment in future in vitro studies of AMR in these conditions.
SN - 1758-2229
ER -