Algal-bacterial consortium mediated system offers effective removal of nitrogen nutrients and antibiotic resistance genes

•Algal-bacterial consortium presents superior ARGs and nutrients removal capacities.•ARGs and TN removal efficiencies were (97.2 ± 2.3)% and (98.5 ± 1.2)%, respectively.•Nitrogen metabolism and glycoproteins had influences on ARGs and TN removals.•The duplication of ARGs was inhibited in C. vulgaris and B. licheniformis. The sulfonamide antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) especially sul1 was identified as the dominant in eutrophic water. The performance of Chlorella vulgaris-B. licheniformis consortium toward sul1 removal, total nitrogen (TN) removal, and the mechanism of sul1 removal was investigated. The removal efficiency of exogenous ARGs plasmids carrying sul1 reached (97.2 ± 2.3)%. The TN removal rate reached (98.5 ± 1.2)%. The enhancements of carbon metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, and glycoproteins had significant influences on sul1 and TN removals, under the premise of normal growth of algae and bacteria. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) results suggested that the absolute abundances of sul1 were low in algal-bacterial systems (0 gene copies/mL) compared with individual systems ((1 × 106 ± 15) gene copies/mL). The duplication of sul1 was inhibited in algal cells and bacterial cells. The algal-bacterial consortium seems to be a promising technology for wastewater treatment with a potential to overcome the eutrophication and ARGs challenges.