Biogeographical variation in antimicrobial resistance in rivers is influenced by agriculture and is spread through bacteriophages

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is currently an extensive medical challenge worldwide, with global numbers increasing steadily. Recent data have highlighted wastewater treatment plants as a reservoir of resistance genes. The impact of these findings for human health can best be summarized using a One Health concept. However, the molecular mechanisms impacting resistance spread have not been carefully evaluated. Bacterial viruses, that is bacteriophages, have recently been shown to be important mediators of bacterial resistance genes in environmental milieus and are transferrable to human pathogens. Herein, we investigated the biogeographical impact on resistance spread through river‐borne bacteriophages using amplicon deep sequencing of the microbiota, absolute quantification of resistance genes using ddPCR, and phage induction capacity within wastewater. Microbial biodiversity of the rivers is significantly affected by river site, surrounding milieu and time of sampling. Furthermore, areas of land associated with agriculture had a significantly higher ability to induce bacteriophages carrying antibiotic resistance genes, indicating their impact on resistance spread. It is imperative that we continue to analyse global antibiotic resistance problem from a One Health perspective to gain novel insights into mechanisms of resistance spread.

Enrichment of antibiotic resistance genes within bacteriophage populations in saliva samples from individuals undergoing oral antibiotic treatments

“…With the antibiotics only being present in the oral cavity for a short time span, a significant upregulation of phages may not necessarily be expected, however, a significant change in the virome itself could be detected ( Abeles et al, 2015 ), indicating that a larger study may be able to identify such induction. Having demonstrated that stressors in environmental water can affect prevalence of resistance genes and carriage by bacteriophages ( Andersson et al, 2022 ), we thus set out to investigate if phage induction would take place in patients receiving oral antibiotics, and how this would affect the resistance profile.…”

Interplay Between Antimicrobial Resistance and Global Environmental Change

“…One source of dispersal is phages, which carry ARGs and also mediate HGT (102). Exposure to contaminants, such as antibiotics, chemicals and heavy metals present in the environment, can lead to phage induction and new rounds of infection that result in ARG transfer (3). Interestingly, although at a much smaller scale, swarming bacteria, which migrate over surfaces using flagella, also disperse antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, in this case by transporting resistant antibioticdegrading bacteria to detoxify a new environment (48).…”