Center for Antibiotic Resistance Research, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Commun Biol. 2021 Jan 4;4(1):8. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-01545-5.
Since the introduction of antibiotics as therapeutic agents, many bacterial pathogens have developed resistance to antibiotics. Mobile resistance genes, acquired through horizontal gene transfer, play an important role in this process. Understanding from which bacterial taxa these genes were mobilized, and whether their origin taxa share common traits, is critical for predicting which environments and conditions contribute to the emergence of novel resistance genes. This knowledge may prove valuable for limiting or delaying future transfer of novel resistance genes into pathogens. The literature on the origins of mobile resistance genes is scattered and based on evidence of variable quality. Here, we summarize, amend and scrutinize the evidence for 37 proposed origins of mobile resistance genes. Using state-of-the-art genomic analyses, we supplement and evaluate the evidence based on well-defined criteria. Nineteen percent of reported origins did not fulfill the criteria to confidently assign the respective origin. Of the curated origin taxa, >90% have been associated with infection in humans or domestic animals, some taxa being the origin of several different resistance genes. The clinical emergence of these resistance genes appears to be a consequence of antibiotic selection pressure on taxa that are permanently or transiently associated with the human/domestic animal microbiome.
自抗生素作为治疗剂问世以来，许多细菌病原体已经对其产生了耐药性。通过水平基因转移获得的移动耐药基因在这一过程中发挥了重要作用。了解这些基因是从哪些细菌分类群中转移过来的，以及它们的起源分类群是否具有共同的特征，对于预测哪些环境和条件有助于新的耐药基因的出现至关重要。这些知识对于限制或延迟新的耐药基因向病原体的转移可能是有价值的。关于移动耐药基因起源的文献分散且基于质量不同的证据。在这里，我们总结、修正并仔细审查了 37 个提出的移动耐药基因起源的证据。我们使用最先进的基因组分析，根据明确的标准补充和评估证据。报告的起源中有 19%不符合有把握地分配各自起源的标准。在经过修正的起源分类群中，超过 90%的分类群与人类或家畜的感染有关，一些分类群是几种不同耐药基因的起源。这些耐药基因在临床上的出现似乎是抗生素对与人类/家畜微生物组永久或暂时相关的分类群的选择压力的结果。
