Abstract: To understand the distribution of typical antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) in vegetable soils of Shenyang in Northeast China, the diversity and abundance of ARGs \[including tetracyclines (tet), sulfonamides (sul), chloramphenicols (cml), and aminoglycosides (aac)\] and MGEs \[including transposons (tnp) and integrons (int)\] were detected in vegetable soils from Shilihe, Dongling, and Xinmintun in Shenyang using highthroughput fluorescence quantitative PCR. The results showed that 21 ARGs and 6 MGEs were detected in the soil samples. The detection rate of cml was the highest (100%), while the varieties of tetwere the largest (14 species). Five ARGs (including tetG-01,tetG-02, tetL-02,tetX,cmx(A)) and 3 MGEs (including tnpA-04, tnpA-05 and intI-1(clinic)) were detected. The diversity and abundance of ARGs were highest in the greenhouse soil samples from Xinmintun, followed by the greenhouse soil samples from Dongling and the general vegetable soil samples from Shilihe. The enrichment of ARGs in rhizosphere soil was significantly higher than that in non-rhizosphere soil. There was a significant positive correlation between the ARGs (sul and cml) and MGEs, indicating that MGEs might promote the migration and diffusion of the ARGs in soils. Our results provide scientific support for evaluating the ARGs pollution in soils and preventing the ecological risk of ARGs in Shenyang vegetable soils.

Key words: vegetable soil, antibiotic resistance gene, mobile genetic element, distribution characteristics.