Bacterial cell lysis induced by pre-acidification greatly promoting the degradation of carried antibiotic resistance genes in zero-valent iron activated Fenton-like processes

•ARB inactivation and the degradation of carried ARG were simultaneously achieved.•Pre-acidification lysed ARB cells and facilitated the degradation of carried ARGs.•Plasmid-encoding ARGs were more resistant to be degraded than that in chromosomes.•Residual extracellular DNA in bacterial solution can be fragmented to short fragments.•ARB lysis induced by acidification promoted ARG degradation in ZVI/H2O2 or ZVI/PDS.