AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/AJWEP026050025
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of antibiotic resistance gene expression in bacteria exposed to uranium stress

Shuai Zhou1 ,  Xiulan Ou1 ,  Jian Song2 ,  Yi Duan1 ,  Shuang Li1 ,  Zidong Yang1 ,  Yuyu Li1 ,  Anqi Chen1 ,  Shuying Li3 ,  Yuanyuan Gao1* ,  Chengyun Zhou3,4*
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1 Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse Technology, School of Civil Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China
2 Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Rare Metal Minerals Exploitation and Geological Disposal of Wastes, School of Resources, Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China
3 Key Laboratory of Monitoring for Heavy Metal Pollutants, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Changsha, Hunan, China
4 Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, China
AJWEP, 026050025 https://doi.org/10.36922/AJWEP026050025
Received: 28 January 2026 | Revised: 24 February 2026 | Accepted: 9 March 2026 | Published online: 4 May 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Uranium (U) exerts combined chemical and radiological toxicity to bacteria, yet its regulatory impact on the expression of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) remains poorly understood. In this study, we profiled the transcriptomic and proteomic responses of Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis under exposure to U at environmentally relevant concentrations. At 0.05 and 5 mg/L U, E. coli exhibited 6 (4 up, 2 down) and 80 (29 up, 51 down) differentially expressed genes (DEGs), respectively, while B. subtilis showed 566 (193 up, 373 down) and 432 (125 up, 307 down) DEGs. Each bacterium adopted distinct strategies for modulating the expression of ARGs, including those encoding efflux pumps. E. coli coordinately upregulated toxin–antitoxin modules, quorum‑sensing machinery, and two‑component systems, shifting to a tolerance state. Conversely, B. subtilis repressed these systems transcriptionally while reinforcing cell wall‑associated two‑component pathways at the protein level, thereby maintaining active growth and repair. Together, our findings reveal the molecular mechanisms through which radioactive heavy metals may promote the evolution of antibiotic resistance, providing a framework for assessing resistance risks in U‑contaminated environments.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Uranium
Antibiotic resistance genes
Escherichia coli
Bacillus subtilis
Transcriptomics
Proteomics
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (No. 2024JJ5329) and the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Monitoring for Heavy Metal Pollutants, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (No. KLMHM202523).
Conflict of interest
Chengyun Zhou is the Editor-in-Chief and Shuai Zhou is an Editorial Board Member of this journal, but were not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Separately, other authors declared that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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