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Using microbial fuel cells with constructed wetlands (MFC-CWs) for eliminating antibiotics has recently attracted extensive attention. However, antibiotic removal efficiencies in MFC-CWs must be enhanced, and the accumulation of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) remains an unmanageable issue. This study tries to enhance the antibiotic removal in synthetic wastewater and reduce ARGs by adding sponge iron (s-Fe-0) and calcium peroxide to the anode and cathode of MFC-CWs, respectively, and/or simultaneously. The results demonstrated that adding s-Fe-0 and calcium peroxide to MFC-CWs could improve the removal efficiencies of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and tetracycline (TC) by 0.8-1.3% and 6.0-8.7%. Therein, s-Fe-0 also significantly reduced 84.10-94.11% and 49.61-60.63% of total sul and tet genes, respectively. Furthermore, s-Fe-0 improved the voltage output, power density, columbic efficiency, and reduced the internal resistance of reactors. The intensification to the electrode layers posed a significant effect on the microbial community composition and functions, which motivated the shift of antibiotic removal, accumulation of ARGs and bioelectricity generation in MFC-CWs. Given the overall performance of MFC-CWs, adding s-Fe-0 to the anode region of MFC-CWs was found to be an effective strategy for removing antibiotics and reducing the accumulation of ARGs. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.