Rapid profiling of drug-resistant bacteria using DNA-binding dyes and a nanopore-based DNA sequencer

Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 9;11(1):3436. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-82903-z.

Abstract

Spread of drug-resistant bacteria is a serious problem worldwide. We thus designed a new sequence-based protocol that can quickly identify bacterial compositions of clinical samples and their drug-resistance profiles simultaneously. Here we utilized propidium monoazide (PMA) that prohibits DNA amplifications from dead bacteria, and subjected the original and antibiotics-treated samples to 16S rRNA metagenome sequencing. We tested our protocol on bacterial mixtures, and observed that sequencing reads derived from drug-resistant bacteria were significantly increased compared with those from drug-sensitive bacteria when samples were treated by antibiotics. Our protocol is scalable and will be useful for quickly profiling drug-resistant bacteria.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacteria / genetics*
  • Coloring Agents / chemistry*
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics*
  • Drug Resistance, Bacterial / genetics*
  • Metagenome
  • Nanopores*
  • RNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA*

Substances

  • Coloring Agents
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • RNA, Bacterial
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S