1. Mobile resistome of human gut and pathogen drives anthropogenic bloom of antibiotic resistance
- Author
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Dae-Wi Kim, Woo Jun Sul, Ju-Hee Cha, Yong-Seok Kim, Eun-Mi Hwang, Do-Hoon Lee, Elizabeth M. H. Wellington, Kihyun Lee, Chang-Jun Cha, Hoon Je Seong, Christopher Quince, Cung Nawl Thawng, and Ji-Hye Bu
- Subjects
Microbiology (medical) ,Gene Transfer, Horizontal ,Antibiotic resistance ,Bacterial genome ,010501 environmental sciences ,Antibiotic resistance gene ,Human gut microbiome ,01 natural sciences ,Microbiology ,lcsh:Microbial ecology ,Resistome ,Mobile genetic element ,03 medical and health sciences ,Feces ,Microbial ecology ,Rivers ,Drug Resistance, Bacterial ,Republic of Korea ,Transmission ,Humans ,Microbiome ,030304 developmental biology ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,0303 health sciences ,biology ,Bacteria ,Sewage ,Ecology ,Pathogen ,Research ,Horizontal gene transfer ,biology.organism_classification ,QR ,Anti-Bacterial Agents ,Gastrointestinal Microbiome ,Interspersed Repetitive Sequences ,Metagenomics ,lcsh:QR100-130 ,Metagenome ,Mobilome ,Mobile genetic elements ,Proteobacteria ,Genes, MDR - Abstract
Background The impact of human activities on the environmental resistome has been documented in many studies, but there remains the controversial question of whether the increased antibiotic resistance observed in anthropogenically impacted environments is just a result of contamination by resistant fecal microbes or is mediated by indigenous environmental organisms. Here, to determine exactly how anthropogenic influences shape the environmental resistome, we resolved the microbiome, resistome, and mobilome of the planktonic microbial communities along a single river, the Han, which spans a gradient of human activities. Results The bloom of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) was evident in the downstream regions and distinct successional dynamics of the river resistome occurred across the spatial continuum. We identified a number of widespread ARG sequences shared between the river, human gut, and pathogenic bacteria. These human-related ARGs were largely associated with mobile genetic elements rather than particular gut taxa and mainly responsible for anthropogenically driven bloom of the downstream river resistome. Furthermore, both sequence- and phenotype-based analyses revealed environmental relatives of clinically important proteobacteria as major carriers of these ARGs. Conclusions Our results demonstrate a more nuanced view of the impact of anthropogenic activities on the river resistome: fecal contamination is present and allows the transmission of ARGs to the environmental resistome, but these mobile genes rather than resistant fecal bacteria proliferate in environmental relatives of their original hosts.
- Published
- 2020