scholarly journals Unravelling native plant resistomes – The Sphagnum microbiome harbours versatile and novel antimicrobial resistance genes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie-Maria Obermeier ◽  
Julian Taffner ◽  
Alessandro Bergna ◽  
Anja Poehlein ◽  
Tomislav Cernava ◽  
...  

The expanding antibiotic resistance crisis calls for a more in depth understanding of the importance of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in pristine environments. We, therefore, studied the microbiota associated with Sphagnum forming the main vegetation in undomesticated, evolutionary old bog ecosystems. In our complementary analysis of a culture collection, metagenomic data and a fosmid library, we identified a low abundant but highly diverse pool of resistance determinants, which targets an unexpected broad range of antibiotics including natural and synthetic compounds. This derives both, from the extraordinarily high abundance of efflux pumps (80%), and the unexpectedly versatile set of ARGs underlying all major resistance mechanisms. The overall target spectrum of detected resistance determinants spans 21 antibiotic classes, whereby β-lactamases and vancomycin resistance appeared as the predominant resistances in all screenings. Multi-resistance was frequently observed among bacterial isolates, e.g. in Serratia, Pandorea, Paraburkhotderia and Rouxiella. In a search for novel ARGs we identified the new class A β-lactamase Mm3. The native Sphagnum resistome comprising a highly diversified and partially novel set of ARGs contributes to the bog ecosystem’s plasticity. Our results shed light onto the antibiotic resistance background of non-agricultural plants and highlight the ecological link between natural and clinically relevant resistomes.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Pieper ◽  
Temesgen Dadi ◽  
Lukasz Grzeskowiak ◽  
Laura Pieper ◽  
Britta Siegmund ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is an increasing zoonotic health threat and has also been documented as a cause of enteritis outbreaks in neonatal pigs. Furthermore, CDI in neonatal piglets cause changes in microbial gut colonization. We hypothesized that an imbalanced microbial colonization in piglets with CDI could be associated with an altered abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes. Results: We analyzed fecal metagenomic data of lactating sows (S), their piglets during suckling (SP), the same piglets two weeks after weaning (WP), 5-day old artificially reared and formula-fed siblings (FP) and FP infected with C. difficile (FP-CD) for microbiota composition and antimicrobial resistance gene abundance. FP and FP-CD piglets had an immature-type microbiota and increased abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes. A co-occurrence of genes encoding for resistance against aminoglycosides (e.g. aph(3”)-lb, aph(6)-ld, ant(2”)-la), β-lactams (blaCTX-M, blaTEM), fluoroquinolones (pat(A) macrolides (mph(A)), sulfonamides (sul1, sul2), polypeptides (e.g. pmrB, pmrC, arnA, bac(A)) and tetracyclines (e.g. tet(A-D),) was observed. Conclusion: Increased abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes in formula feeding and concomitant CDI may be associated with therapeutic resistance later in life and warrant further studies.


2004 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng Chen ◽  
Shaohua Zhao ◽  
David G. White ◽  
Carl M. Schroeder ◽  
Ran Lu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A total of 133 Salmonella isolates recovered from retail meats purchased in the United States and the People's Republic of China were assayed for antimicrobial susceptibility, the presence of integrons and antimicrobial resistance genes, and horizontal transfer of characterized antimicrobial resistance determinants via conjugation. Seventy-three (82%) of these Salmonella isolates were resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent. Resistance to the following antibiotics was common among the United States isolates: tetracycline (68% of the isolates were resistant), streptomycin (61%), sulfamethoxazole (42%), and ampicillin (29%). Eight Salmonella isolates (6%) were resistant to ceftriaxone. Fourteen isolates (11%) from the People's Republic of China were resistant to nalidixic acid and displayed decreased susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. A total of 19 different antimicrobial resistance genes were identified in 30 multidrug-resistant Salmonella isolates. The bla CMY-2 gene, encoding a class A AmpC β-lactamase, was detected in all 10 Salmonella isolates resistant to extended-spectrum β-lactams. Resistance to ampicillin was most often associated with a TEM-1 family β-lactamase gene. Six aminoglycoside resistance genes, aadA1, aadA2, aacC2, Kn, aph(3)-IIa, and aac(3)-IVa, were commonly present in the Salmonella isolates. Sixteen (54%) of 30 Salmonella isolates tested had integrons ranging in size from 0.75 to 2.7 kb. Conjugation studies demonstrated that there was plasmid-mediated transfer of genes encoding CMY-2 and TEM-1-like β-lactamases. These data indicate that Salmonella isolates recovered from retail raw meats are commonly resistant to multiple antimicrobials, including those used for treating salmonellosis, such as ceftriaxone. Genes conferring antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella are often carried on integrons and plasmids and could be transmitted through conjugation. These mobile DNA elements have likely played an important role in transmission and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance determinants among Salmonella strains.


Author(s):  
Samantha Reddy ◽  
Oliver T. Zishiri

Campylobacter spp. are common pathogenic bacteria in both veterinary and human medicine. Infections caused by Campylobacter spp. are usually treated using antibiotics. However, the injudicious use of antibiotics has been proven to spearhead the emergence of antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this study was to detect the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in Campylobacter spp. isolated from chickens and human clinical cases in South Africa. One hundred and sixty one isolates of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli were collected from chickens and human clinical cases and then screened for the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes. We observed a wide distribution of the tetO gene, which confers resistance to tetracycline. The gyrA genes that are responsible quinolone resistance were also detected. Finally, our study also detected the presence of the blaOXA-61, which is associated with ampicillin resistance. There was a higher (p < 0.05) prevalence of the studied antimicrobial resistance genes in chicken faeces compared with human clinical isolates. The tetO gene was the most prevalent gene detected, which was isolated at 64% and 68% from human and chicken isolates, respectively. The presence of gyrA genes was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with quinolone resistance. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the presence of gyrA (235 bp), gyrA (270 bp), blaOXA-61 and tetO antimicrobial resistance genes in C. jejuni and C. coli isolated from chickens and human clinical cases. This indicates that Campylobacter spp. have the potential of resistance to a number of antibiotic classes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Will ◽  
Thandavarayan Ramamurthy ◽  
Naresh Chand Sharma ◽  
Balaji Veeraraghavan ◽  
Lucky Sangal ◽  
...  

AbstractDiphtheria is a respiratory disease caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Although the development of a toxin-based vaccine in the 1930s has allowed a high level of control over the disease, cases have increased in recent years. Here, we describe the genomic variation of 502 C. diphtheriae isolates across 16 countries and territories over 122 years. We generate a core gene phylogeny and determine the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes and variation within the tox gene of 291 tox+ isolates. Numerous, highly diverse clusters of C. diphtheriae are observed across the phylogeny, each containing isolates from multiple countries, regions and time of isolation. The number of antimicrobial resistance genes, as well as the breadth of antibiotic resistance, is substantially greater in the last decade than ever before. We identified and analysed 18 tox gene variants, with mutations estimated to be of medium to high structural impact.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura de Nies ◽  
Sara Lopes ◽  
Anna Heintz-Buschart ◽  
Cedric Christian Laczny ◽  
Patrick May ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundPathogenic microorganisms cause disease by invading, colonizing and damaging their host. Virulence factors including bacterial toxins contribute to their pathogenicity. Additionally, antimicrobial resistance genes allow pathogens to evade otherwise curative treatments. To understand causal relationships between microbiome compositions, functioning, and disease, it is therefore essential to identify virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance genes in metagenomic datasets. At present, there is a clear lack of computational approaches to simultaneously identifying these factors. Here we present PathoFact, a tool for the contextualized prediction of virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance genes in metagenomic data.ResultsPathoFact predicts virulence factors, bacterial toxins and antimicrobial resistance genes with high accuracy (0.92, 0.83 and 0.99) and specificity (0.96, 0.99 and 0.98), respectively. The performance of PathoFact was furthermore demonstrated on three publicly available case-control metagenomic datasets representing an actual infection as well as chronic diseases in which either pathogenic potential or bacterial toxins were predicted to play a role. With PathoFact, we identified virulence factors (including toxins) and antimicrobial resistance genes, and identified signature genes which differentiated between the disease and control groups.ConclusionPathoFact is an easy-to-use, modular, and reproducible pipeline for the identification of virulence factors, toxins and antimicrobial resistance genes in metagenomic data. Additionally, PathoFact combines the prediction of these pathogenicity factors with the identification of mobile genetic elements. This provides further depth to the analysis by considering the genomic context of the pertinent genes. Furthermore, each module (virulence factors, toxin and antimicrobial resistance genes) of PathoFact is also a standalone component, making it a flexible and versatile tool. PathoFact is freely available online at https://git-r3lab.uni.lu/laura.denies/PathoFact.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenxiu Ai ◽  
Ying Zhou ◽  
Bingjie Wang ◽  
Qing Zhan ◽  
Longhua Hu ◽  
...  

Many antimicrobial resistance genes usually located on transferable plasmids are responsible for multiple antimicrobial resistance among multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria. The aim of this study is to characterize a carbapenemase-producing Enterobacter hormaechei 1575 isolate from the blood sample in a tertiary hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that 1575 was an MDR isolate. The whole genome sequencing (WGS) and comparative genomics were used to deeply analyze the molecular information of the 1575 and to explore the location and structure of antibiotic resistance genes. The three key resistance genes (blaSFO–1, blaNDM–1, and mcr-9) were verified by PCR, and the amplicons were subsequently sequenced. Moreover, the conjugation assay was also performed to determine the transferability of those resistance genes. Plasmid files were determined by the S1 nuclease pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (S1-PFGE). WGS revealed that p1575-1 plasmid was a conjugative plasmid that possessed the rare coexistence of blaSFO–1, blaNDM–1, and mcr-9 genes and complete conjugative systems. And p1575-1 belonged to the plasmid incompatibility group IncHI2 and multilocus sequence typing ST102. Meanwhile, the pMLST type of p1575-1 was IncHI2-ST1. Conjugation assay proved that the MDR p1575-1 plasmid could be transferred to other recipients. S1-PFGE confirmed the location of plasmid with molecular weight of 342,447 bp. All these three resistant genes were flanked by various mobile elements, indicating that the blaSFO–1, blaNDM–1, and mcr-9 could be transferred not only by the p1575-1 plasmid but also by these mobile elements. Taken together, we report for the first time the coexistence of blaSFO–1, blaNDM–1, and mcr-9 on a transferable plasmid in a MDR clinical isolate E. hormaechei, which indicates the possibility of horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolein Gyonne Elise Laumen ◽  
Christophe Van Dijck ◽  
Saïd Abdellati ◽  
Irith De Baetselier ◽  
Gabriela Serrano ◽  
...  

AbstractNon-pathogenic Neisseria are a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance genes for pathogenic Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at risk of co-colonization with resistant non-pathogenic and pathogenic Neisseria. We assessed if the antimicrobial susceptibility of non-pathogenic Neisseria among MSM differs from a general population and if antimicrobial exposure impacts susceptibility. We recruited 96 participants at our center in Belgium: 32 employees, 32 MSM who did not use antibiotics in the previous 6 months, and 32 MSM who did. Oropharyngeal Neisseria were cultured and identified with MALDI-TOF–MS. Minimum inhibitory concentrations for azithromycin, ceftriaxone and ciprofloxacin were determined using E-tests® and compared between groups with non-parametric tests. Non-pathogenic Neisseria from employees as well as MSM were remarkably resistant. Those from MSM were significantly less susceptible than employees to azithromycin and ciprofloxacin (p < 0.0001, p < 0.001), but not ceftriaxone (p = 0.3). Susceptibility did not differ significantly according to recent antimicrobial exposure in MSM. Surveilling antimicrobial susceptibility of non-pathogenic Neisseria may be a sensitive way to assess impact of antimicrobial exposure in a population. The high levels of antimicrobial resistance in this survey indicate that novel resistance determinants may be readily available for future transfer from non-pathogenic to pathogenic Neisseria.


2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 3214-3221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Maynard ◽  
John M. Fairbrother ◽  
Sadjia Bekal ◽  
François Sanschagrin ◽  
Roger C. Levesque ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A total of 112 Escherichia coli O149:K91 strains isolated from pigs with diarrhea in Quebec, Canada, between 1978 and 2000 were characterized for their genotypic antimicrobial resistance profiles. Tests for resistance to 10 antimicrobial agents were conducted. Resistance to tetracycline and sulfonamides was found to be the most frequent, but resistance to cefotaxime and ceftiofur was absent. An increase in the number of isolates resistant to at least three antimicrobials was observed over time. The distribution of 28 resistance genes covering six antimicrobial families (beta-lactams, aminoglycosides, phenicols, tetracycline, trimethoprim, and sulfonamides) was assessed by colony hybridization. Significant differences in the distributions of tetracycline [tet(A), tet(B), tet(C)], trimethoprim (dhfrI, dhfrV, dhfrXIII), and sulfonamide (sulI, sulII) resistance genes were observed during the study period (1978 to 2000). Sixty percent of the isolates possessed a class 1 integron, illustrating the importance of integrons in the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance in E. coli strains from pigs. Amplification of the integron's variable region resulted in four distinct fragments of 1, 1.3, 1.6, and 1.8 kb, with the 1.6- and 1.8-kb fragments appearing only during the last half of the study period. Examination of linkages among the different resistance genes showed a variety of positive and negative associations. Association analysis of isolates divided into two groups, those isolated between 1978 and 1989 and those isolated between 1990 and 2000, revealed the appearance of new positive resistance gene associations. Our genotypic resistance analyses of ETEC isolates from pigs indicate that many of the antibiotic resistance genes behind phenotypic resistance are not static but, rather, are in a state of flux driven by various selection forces such as the use of specific antimicrobials.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Fernanda Loayza Villa ◽  
Alejandro Torres ◽  
Lixin Zhang ◽  
Gabriel Trueba

Abstract Background: The use of antimicrobials in the animal industry has increased the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antimicrobial-resistance genes which can be transferred to human microbiota through the food chain or the environment. To reduce the influx of antibiotic-resistance to the human microbiota, restrictions on antimicrobials (in food animals) have been implemented in different countries. We investigated the impact of an antimicrobial restriction on the frequency of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in pigs (PCI 1050) from an Ecuadorian farm. Results: No differences in antimicrobial resistant coliforms or antimicrobial resistance genes (richness and abundance) were found when we compared animals fed with or without antibiotics. Nevertheless, the absence of antimicrobials in pigs didn’t impact the productive performance of animals. Conclusion: Fitness costs of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria within intestinal microbiota of animals seems to be overestimated. Avoiding antimicrobials as prophylactics in pigs fed is not enough to control maintenance and spread of antimicrobial resistance.


Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1042
Author(s):  
Saharuetai Jeamsripong ◽  
Xunde Li ◽  
Sharif S. Aly ◽  
Zhengchang Su ◽  
Richard V. Pereira ◽  
...  

The objectives of this study were to characterize overall genomic antibiotic resistance profiles of fecal Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. from dairy cattle at different production stages using whole-genome sequencing and to determine the association between antimicrobial resistance (AMR) phenotypes and their corresponding genotypes. The Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) and ResFinder, two publicly available databases of antimicrobial resistance genes, were used to annotate isolates. Based on the ResFinder database, 27.5% and 20.0% of tested E. coli isolates (n = 40) harbored single and ≥3 antimicrobial resistance genes, respectively; for Enterococcus spp., we observed 87.8% and 8.2%, respectively. The highest prevalence of AMR genes in E. coli was for resistance to tetracycline (27.5%), followed by sulphonamide (22.5%) and aminoglycoside (20.0%); the predominant antimicrobial resistance genes in Enterococcus spp. targeted macrolide drugs (77.6%). Based on the CARD database, resistance to ≥3 antimicrobial classes was observed in all E. coli and 77.6% in Enterococcus spp. isolates. A high degree of agreement existed between the resistance phenotype and the presence of resistance genes for various antimicrobial classes for E. coli but much less so for isolates of Enterococcus. Consistent with prior work, fecal E. coli and Enterococcus spp. isolates from calves harbored a wide spectrum of resistance genes, compared to those from cattle at other production stages, based on the cross-sectional samples from the studied farm.


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