Gergely Maróti

The main focus of his research is the investigation of various microbial interactions and the application of complex microbial communities in agricultural and environmental biotechnology, including wastewater treatment systems. Gergely Maróti has co-written more than 150 peer-reviewed international publications (H-index: 47, ORCID: 0000-0002-3705-0461) in the fields of microbial biotechnology and molecular microbiology. His main interest is the investigation of inter-kingdom microbial interactions with special emphasis on natural and synthetic algal-bacterial communities and the microbiomes of wastewater treatment plants. Beside conducting fundamental research Gergely has strong commitment and ability to transform basic scientific achievements into exploitable products and services. The research team combines the most recent high-throughput omics approaches with traditional microbiology and analytics as well as cutting-edge bioinformatic analyses including genome-centric metagenome investigations. 

Tentative Title:

Functional resistomes within complex microbial communities in municipal wastewater treatment plants

Session/panel summary and proposed speakers:

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are essential for controlling antimicrobial resistance, but also serve as hotspots for resistance gene persistence and dissemination. Research has confirmed that WWTPs are major reservoirs and potential dissemination points for antibiotic resistance, harboring diverse ARGs. Prior studies have demonstrated that although core resistance genes exist within WWTPs, their widespread dissemination to other environments, including human pathogens, appears limited. However, recent findings have indicated that the treatment process itself markedly influences the dynamics of ARGs and mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Various factors, including seasonality and treatment configuration, are crucial in shaping antimicrobial resistance across influent, sludge and effluent. WWTPs are not only sites for treating human-origin wastewater; but also complex ecosystems where human-associated, and environmental microbes co-exist and interact at high densities. Moreover, as environmental bacteria naturally carry diverse resistance genes, distinguishing their origins is critical for targeted monitoring of ARGs associated with human activity. This underscores the need to investigate microbial community origins and their resistomes within WWTPs to develop effective strategies for mitigating ARG release protecting public health.

Traditional culture-based methods and quantitative polymerase chain reaction targeting specific ARGs, although informative, offer limited scope and are biased by primer selection and low coverage of unknown or emerging resistance genes. Conversely, shotgun metagenomics provides a powerful alternative for comprehensive resistome profiling, enabling the broad ARG detection. 

Proposed speakers: Gergely Maróti (HUN-REN BRC, Szeged); Nora Sutton, Wageningen University (nora.sutton@wur.nl); Kim Milferstedt, INRAE (kim.milferstedt@inrae.fr); etc.

Pillar and Topic/Subtopic:

Pillar 2, Topic 2.1. Applied and Environmental Science, Subtopic 2.1 c. Wastewater and Non-clinical Microbiology: AMR Detection and Monitoring