State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Sciences & Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Fifth People's Hospital of Shanghai, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
Environ Microbiol Rep. 2024 Dec;16(6):e70032. doi: 10.1111/1758-2229.70032.
Given the threat to public health posed by antibiotic resistance transmission, environmental monitoring is essential for tracking antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Houseflies, being ubiquitous organisms capable of carrying and disseminating ARGs, serve as suitable indicators for environmental monitoring. In this study, we employ metagenomic approaches to investigate housefly body surface samples from five typical sites associated with human activities. The investigation reveals microbiome diversity among the samples, along with variations in the occurrence and mobility potential of ARGs. Metagenomic analysis indicates that the composition of ARGs on housefly body surfaces is influenced by environmental ARGs, which may be enriched on the housefly body surface. The resistance genes related to multidrug, β-lactam, bacitracin, and tetracycline were the predominant ARGs detected, with multidrug-related ARGs consistently exhibiting dominance. Furthermore, the abundance of ARGs in the different housefly body surface samples was found to correlate with the population density and mobility of the sampling site. Natural environments exhibited the lowest ARG abundance, while areas with higher population density and limited population mobility displayed higher ARG abundance. This study emphasizes the effectiveness of houseflies as monitors for environmental ARGs and underscores their potential for assessing and controlling antibiotic resistance risks in urban environments.
鉴于抗生素耐药性传播对公共卫生构成的威胁，环境监测对于追踪抗生素耐药基因（ARGs）至关重要。家蝇作为能够携带和传播 ARGs 的普遍存在的生物体，是环境监测的合适指标。在这项研究中，我们采用宏基因组学方法调查了来自五个与人类活动相关的典型地点的家蝇体表样本。研究揭示了样本中微生物组的多样性，以及 ARGs 的出现和迁移潜力的变化。宏基因组学分析表明，家蝇体表上 ARGs 的组成受环境 ARGs 的影响，这些 ARGs 可能在家蝇体表上得到富集。在家蝇体表上检测到的主要 ARGs 与多药、β-内酰胺、杆菌肽和四环素有关，其中与多药相关的 ARGs 一直占据主导地位。此外，不同家蝇体表样本中 ARGs 的丰度与采样点的种群密度和迁移能力有关。自然环境中 ARG 的丰度最低，而人口密度较高且人口迁移能力有限的地区 ARG 的丰度较高。这项研究强调了家蝇作为环境 ARGs 监测器的有效性，并突出了它们在评估和控制城市环境中抗生素耐药性风险方面的潜力。
