Abstract
Microbial dynamics of the domestic environment and their antibiotic-resistant properties have been poorly characterized. We surveyed the microbial community and their antibiotic profiling located in the rural and urban areas of Meerut city, Uttar Pradesh, India. Results show that bacterial community load across all samples had more than 100-fold higher than fungal community (all p<0.05.). Based on population load, the kitchen of both rural (Fungal: 4.16±1.81 vs Bacteria: 160.5±27.13) and urban areas (Fungal: 6.2±1.02 vs Bacteria: 205.46±30.9) were more contaminated than living rooms (rural area-Fungal: 2.13±0.74 vs Bacteria: 62.17±20.68 and urban area- Fungal: 4.75±1.68 vs Bacteria: 74.88±7.53). Six bacteria, namely Pseudomonas sps; Citrobacter sps; Bacillus Subtilis; Brevundimonas diminuta; Bacillus megaterium; and Klebsiella pneumonia, showed dominance on all other bacterial and fungal sp hence, only these six bacteria were subjected to antibiotic sensitivity test (AST). In AST, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus Subtilis, Bacillus megaterium, were resistant to more than three antibiotics. The most sensitive strain for Ciprofloxacin, Streptomycin was Citrobacter sp. However, Pseudomonas sp was found sensitive only to Amoxillin. Brevundimonas diminuta is found most sensitive to all antibiotics. Plasmid profiling of selected bacteria suggests that antibiotic resistance properties arose from plasmids, not genomic ones. These findings give new insights into the local-scale distribution of MDR bacteria in a household environment.