Tossed ‘good luck’ coins as vectors for anthropogenic pollution into aquatic environment

Martínez, Alejandro; Di Cesare, Andrea; Mari-Mena, Neus; García-Gómez, Guillermo; Garcia-Herrero, Alvaro; Corno, Gianluca; Fontaneto, Diego; Eckert, Ester M.

Tossed ‘good luck’ coins as vectors for anthropogenic pollution into aquatic environment

2020

Superstition has it that tossing coins into wells or fountains brings good luck, thereby causing a potential accumulation of microbially contaminated metal particles in the water. Here, we characterized the microbiota and the resistance profile in biofilm on such coins and their surrounding sediments. The study site was a tidal marine lake within a touristic center located in a natural reserve area. Notwithstanding the fact that coin-related biofilms were dominated by typical marine taxa, coin biofilms had specific microbial communities that were different from the communities of the surrounding sediment. Moreover, the communities were different depending on whether the coin were made mainly of steel or of copper. Sequences affiliated with putative pathogens were found on every third coin but were not found in the surrounding sediment. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were detected on most of the coins, and interestingly, sediments close to the area where coins accumulate had a higher frequency of ARGs. We suggest that the surface of the coins might offer a niche for ARGs and faecal bacteria to survive, and, thus, tossed coins are a potential source and vector for ARGs into the surrounding environment.

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