Dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes from antibiotic producers to pathogens

Xinglin Jiang, Mostafa M. Hashim Ellabaan, Pep Charusanti, Christian Munck, Kai Blin, Yaojun Tong, Tilmann Weber (), Morten O. A. Sommer () and Sang Yup Lee ()
Additional contact information
Xinglin Jiang: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Mostafa M. Hashim Ellabaan: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Pep Charusanti: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Christian Munck: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Kai Blin: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Yaojun Tong: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Tilmann Weber: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Morten O. A. Sommer: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark
Sang Yup Lee: The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract It has been hypothesized that some antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) found in pathogenic bacteria derive from antibiotic-producing actinobacteria. Here we provide bioinformatic and experimental evidence supporting this hypothesis. We identify genes in proteobacteria, including some pathogens, that appear to be closely related to actinobacterial ARGs known to confer resistance against clinically important antibiotics. Furthermore, we identify two potential examples of recent horizontal transfer of actinobacterial ARGs to proteobacterial pathogens. Based on this bioinformatic evidence, we propose and experimentally test a ‘carry-back’ mechanism for the transfer, involving conjugative transfer of a carrier sequence from proteobacteria to actinobacteria, recombination of the carrier sequence with the actinobacterial ARG, followed by natural transformation of proteobacteria with the carrier-sandwiched ARG. Our results support the existence of ancient and, possibly, recent transfers of ARGs from antibiotic-producing actinobacteria to proteobacteria, and provide evidence for a defined mechanism.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15784 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15784

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15784

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().