Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed
Abstract Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest challenges to public health. While the discovery of antibiotics has decreased pathogen-caused mortality, the overuse of these drugs has resulted in the increased transfer and evolution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in bacteria. ARGs natura...
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Oxford University Press (OUP)
2024
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croxfordunivpr:10.1093/sumbio/qvae021 2024-09-09T19:21:20+00:00 Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed Provencher, Juliette George, Paul B L Thaler, Mary Vincent, Warwick F Duchaine, Caroline Culley, Alexander I Girard, Catherine 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sumbio/qvae021 https://academic.oup.com/sumbio/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/sumbio/qvae021/58761029/qvae021.pdf en eng Oxford University Press (OUP) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Sustainable Microbiology ISSN 2755-1970 journal-article 2024 croxfordunivpr https://doi.org/10.1093/sumbio/qvae021 2024-08-12T04:26:57Z Abstract Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest challenges to public health. While the discovery of antibiotics has decreased pathogen-caused mortality, the overuse of these drugs has resulted in the increased transfer and evolution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in bacteria. ARGs naturally occur in wild bacterial communities, but are also found in increased concentrations in environments contaminated by wastewater effluent. Although such ARGs are relatively well described in temperate environments, little is known about the distribution and dissemination of these genes in the Arctic. We characterized the ARGs in microbial communities from aerosols, lakes and microbial mats around a remote Arctic hamlet using metagenomic approaches. Specific objectives were to i) compare ARGs across habitats, ii) to characterize ARG populations along a continuum of anthropogenically influenced environments and iii) to identify ARGs of viral origin. We identified ARGs in all habitats throughout the watershed, and found that microbial mats in the most impacted area had the highest diversity of ARGs relative to uncontaminated sites, which may be a remnant signal of wastewater effluent inputs in the area during the 20th century. Although we identified ARGs predominantly in bacterial genomes, our data suggests that mimiviruses may also harbor ARGs. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Oxford University Press Arctic Sustainable Microbiology 1 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Oxford University Press |
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croxfordunivpr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest challenges to public health. While the discovery of antibiotics has decreased pathogen-caused mortality, the overuse of these drugs has resulted in the increased transfer and evolution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in bacteria. ARGs naturally occur in wild bacterial communities, but are also found in increased concentrations in environments contaminated by wastewater effluent. Although such ARGs are relatively well described in temperate environments, little is known about the distribution and dissemination of these genes in the Arctic. We characterized the ARGs in microbial communities from aerosols, lakes and microbial mats around a remote Arctic hamlet using metagenomic approaches. Specific objectives were to i) compare ARGs across habitats, ii) to characterize ARG populations along a continuum of anthropogenically influenced environments and iii) to identify ARGs of viral origin. We identified ARGs in all habitats throughout the watershed, and found that microbial mats in the most impacted area had the highest diversity of ARGs relative to uncontaminated sites, which may be a remnant signal of wastewater effluent inputs in the area during the 20th century. Although we identified ARGs predominantly in bacterial genomes, our data suggests that mimiviruses may also harbor ARGs. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Provencher, Juliette George, Paul B L Thaler, Mary Vincent, Warwick F Duchaine, Caroline Culley, Alexander I Girard, Catherine |
spellingShingle |
Provencher, Juliette George, Paul B L Thaler, Mary Vincent, Warwick F Duchaine, Caroline Culley, Alexander I Girard, Catherine Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed |
author_facet |
Provencher, Juliette George, Paul B L Thaler, Mary Vincent, Warwick F Duchaine, Caroline Culley, Alexander I Girard, Catherine |
author_sort |
Provencher, Juliette |
title |
Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed |
title_short |
Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed |
title_full |
Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed |
title_fullStr |
Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed |
title_full_unstemmed |
Microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a Canadian High Arctic watershed |
title_sort |
microbial antibiotic resistance genes across an anthropogenic gradient in a canadian high arctic watershed |
publisher |
Oxford University Press (OUP) |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sumbio/qvae021 https://academic.oup.com/sumbio/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/sumbio/qvae021/58761029/qvae021.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Sustainable Microbiology ISSN 2755-1970 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/sumbio/qvae021 |
container_title |
Sustainable Microbiology |
container_volume |
1 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1809761535626575872 |