University of Aberdeen, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, Greenburn Road, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, UK.
Environ Microbiol. 2009 Dec;11(12):2970-88. doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01972.x. Epub 2009 Jul 6.
Investigations of antibiotic resistance from an environmental prospective shed new light on a problem that was traditionally confined to a subset of clinically relevant antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens. It is clear that the environmental microbiota, even in apparently antibiotic-free environments, possess an enormous number and diversity of antibiotic resistance genes, some of which are very similar to the genes circulating in pathogenic microbiota. It is difficult to explain the role of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in natural environments from an anthropocentric point of view, which is focused on clinical aspects such as the efficiency of antibiotics in clearing infections and pathogens that are resistant to antibiotic treatment. A broader overview of the role of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in nature from the evolutionary and ecological prospective suggests that antibiotics have evolved as another way of intra- and inter-domain communication in various ecosystems. This signalling by non-clinical concentrations of antibiotics in the environment results in adaptive phenotypic and genotypic responses of microbiota and other members of the community. Understanding the complex picture of evolution and ecology of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance may help to understand the processes leading to the emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance and also help to control it, at least in relation to the newer antibiotics now entering clinical practice.
从环境角度研究抗生素耐药性，为这一传统上局限于临床相关抗生素耐药细菌病原体子集的问题提供了新的认识。显然，即使在表面上没有抗生素的环境中，环境微生物群也拥有大量且多样化的抗生素耐药基因，其中一些与在病原微生物群中循环的基因非常相似。从以临床为中心的角度（如抗生素清除感染和对抗生素治疗有耐药性的病原体的效率）来解释抗生素和抗生素耐药性在自然环境中的作用是困难的。从进化和生态的角度更广泛地概述抗生素和抗生素耐药性在自然界中的作用表明，抗生素已经进化成为各种生态系统中种内和种间交流的另一种方式。环境中非临床浓度的抗生素的这种信号传递导致微生物群和其他群落成员的适应性表型和基因型反应。了解抗生素和抗生素耐药性的进化和生态学的复杂情况可能有助于理解导致抗生素耐药性出现和传播的过程，并有助于控制它，至少在与现在进入临床实践的新型抗生素有关的方面。
